


I am Weakness

by FantasyNinja26



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: F/M, Follows Plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 11:16:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11966247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FantasyNinja26/pseuds/FantasyNinja26
Summary: Ex-State Alchemist, Penelope Dewitt tells the country the story of her life in the military with the Elric Brothers and friend Yuki Mustang in a lone radio studio. A troubling, but epic story, with little happy moments that comes with a price. What results is the exposure all the military's secrets to the public in the controversial tell all. Based off of the 2003 Anime. (Counter story to I am Suppressed)





	1. Prologue

It was one thing to come into your job running on two to three hours of sleep once because you felt brave and reckless with your sleeping hours for a night, but it was another thing to going through the same chore for months. Stare at the ceiling for several hours, hoping to catch a wink of sleep only to find yourself in the flurry of panic when you realize you slept through the alarm. This felt like the one-hundredth time I was running inside into this tiny radio studio, throwing my invaluable bag to the side upon entering, and skidding into my respectable spot. Landing into a chair as the mousy technician didn’t even let his eyes leave his work of wires and cords as a tiny smile rose onto his face. “Let me take a guess, the alarm again?” Fawn chuckled as he worked. “It's sad that I'm more of an adult than what you’re supposed to be, and how old are we again?”

“You act like you don’t have those days.” I retorted.

Fawn lifted his head and cocked it in the direction of the telephone. “You have a call by the way.”

“Probably a telemarketer,” I grumbled as I reached for the phone. Before I could even pick up the phone I heard Fawn clear his throat now catching my attention. He gave a smile along with a motion to match. I raised the fakest of smiles and brought the phone right up to my ear. “This is Penelope Dewitt, do you have a topic of interest you want to discuss on the air?” I asked.

“Hi Pene, I was wondering if you could discuss your time in the military.” An elderly woman spoke.

An eyebrow rose, staring at the wall with a questioning gaze. From the corner of my eye, I could see Fawn watching my features now shrugging at my silence. I moved the phone to the next ear and leaned the phone against my shoulder. “And why do you think I should that?”

“Well, you're the most public kid Alchemist that deserted the military. Your story could be helpful in the discussion of children being in the military especially since Yuki Mustang and Edward Elric disappeared.”

I shifted uncomfortably and looked over my shoulder to Fawn who worked on his wires and cords to himself. Then looking back to the wall I nervously tapped on the phone with my a fingernail. “With all due respect ma’am, that doesn't sound like a good idea. There's some stuff that I'd rather not talk about, especially on the air. What I did wasn’t deserting, I formally quit the military aft-”

“So you’re just going to hide away again like a coward?” The woman spat. 

I felt all the color leave my face, a chill shot down my spine as that sudden brutal question crashed into my body. “I beg your pardon?”

“Just like before you’re hiding away like a coward. When you face one troubling thing you hide away and cry like the child you are. Really, grow up and try a different tactic.” She continued making my skin crawl with irritation.

I leaned forward, catching my composure as I began to rub my eyes and move my fingers to the bridge of my nose. “Ma’am, you aren’t the first angry caller I’ve had to deal with. I have people complaining and screaming at me for different stuff all the time. It’s getting old.” My voice coming off as exasperated.

“Maybe you should do something about it. Instead of sitting on your lonely ass and hiding away like a pathetic child.”

Before I could retort the line went dead, a silence before the ringing signaling the end blared into my ear drum. I pulled the phone away from my ear, listening to the ringing for a moment, then finally letting out a growl and slamming the phone down on its rest. A curse spurted from my mouth, catching Fawn’s attention even more. My name cautiously came from his mouth only triggering an angered response from me as I turned to face him. “You would think they would’ve caught on by now! I just want to move on from what happened!” I exclaimed.

Fawn’s face went red and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well… Maybe you… Should talk about it.”

“We’ve been over this. I don’t want to talk about what happened and that’s final.”

“Penelope-”

“Pene.”

He swallowed nervously and stepped to me with his chair dragging close behind him. Placing the chair in front of me, he took a spot and took my hands in his tiny hands. “Pene, you can’t stay silent, not with your reputation. You made this choice when you decided to go on the air for the first time. Also, I don’t think what you’re doing is working, this method of ‘moving on’ isn’t really working.” I opened my mouth to argue back only to have him continue to speak with a quietly stern voice. “Scratch that, I don’t think you can ever get over what happened or what’s bound to happen, it’s part of the fine print to do and see some horrible stuff.”

I pressed my lips together, shaking my head softly. “So if this doesn’t work, what do you suppose I do next?”

“I’ll get back to you on that. But it’ll be easier after everyone gets off your back to talk.”

“It’ll be difficult to talk about.”

He shrugged and smiled a little while releasing my hands. When I looked back up Fawn was already walking away with his chair dragging away into the ground. “Well isn’t that why I’m here? To make your job easier?”

My eyebrows knotted together now standing and walking to the recording station while he sat down in his respected spot. “You have no idea what you’re asking for,” I warned quietly when I slowly put my headphones on. After a pause, I let out a nervous laugh. There was no way I was actually going to do this to myself right? Diving head first back into the abyss? Maybe I shouldn’t think about it, just go for it. Quietly I gave Fawn the okay to start, allowing the bright red recording sign to go off. I was on. At first, I took a deep breath before I allowed myself to speak into the microphone. “So, people have asked time and time again for me to talk about what happened to me while I was in the military. I suppose it makes sense, having one kid in the military was a controversy by itself, but three was huge news. I’ve wanted to keep silent, but I can’t. I’m not allowed to. But if you want to know what you’re getting into I’ll drop this bomb and set you up for what’s to come.” I stated with a frown on my features. “I did Human Transmutation when I was little, lost parts of my brain and doctors told me I wouldn’t able to live past seventeen because a little girl with holes in her brain shouldn’t be alive for long.” 

Fawn’s jaw dropped in the corner of my eye. “Y-You did what?”

“You heard me loud and clear. I committed arguably one of the biggest taboos in alchemy. It wasn’t the right call and I highly recommend you don’t do it.” I stated. Immediately I could hear the phone blaring loudly, but I never moved an inch to answer, not ready to hear what came from them. My head rose, my fingers knitted together on the table, I could feel my eyes light on fire in ruthless blazing heat that seemed to fuel me in new ways. Despite that though, I still felt anxiety boiling in my stomach, overflowing and burning at my insides like lava. I felt cold and calm on the outside but inside I felt a storm destroying every sense of security I had left.“I feel like that’s a pretty solid introduction if I do say so myself.”

“W-What!” Fawn stammered with widened eyes. “No! You have to explain that!”

"I will, but not yet. That’s only a taste of what to expect. It’s important that’s what you hear first because it was the catalyst of where I was then and where I am now. So sit down and get comfortable, for the next couple of days I’ll be sharing the story of my life. You asked for it, so here it is. I’m starting my story in Liore and as you may or may not know I worked as the Powered Alchemist with the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric, his brother, Alphonse Elric, and the Resonance Alchemist, Yuki Mustang. Together the four of us were a great force with our heads held high and searching for one of the greatest mysteries of our time. The Philosopher's Stone.”


	2. Those Who Challenged The Sun

At the time I was about to be sixteen and my partners and I were heading to Liore. There was the Resonance Alchemist, Yuki Mustang who also happened to be my Commanding Officer's daughter. She was famous for her bracelet, with a snap with that thing on she could change a sound's frequency from a whistle and turn it into a weapon. I never understood how she used it, she can explain the technicalities of it far better than I ever could. She was a couple of months younger than me, black haired, had these really nice brown eyes, sleek automail for her right arm with a transmutation circle carved into it. She was nice, a really good friend to have. There was Alphonse Elric, he wasn't part of the military at all but he still stuck around with us to keep his brother in check. He was the youngest Elric out of three, he was a good alchemist, an excellent fighter, and he was a brave kid. I really admired him. Then there was Edward, the Fullmetal Alchemist, although no believed he was the Fullmetal Alchemist when they saw him.

How come?

He was... Shorter than his younger brother. You see Al was in a large suit of armor and when people know the Fullmetal Alchemist they envisioned what Al looked like. Gigantic, in a suit of armor, etc. Regardless, Ed was a talented State Alchemist, the second child out of the three Elrics, he was smart, good at what he did, and he could always make things lively. He had this long blonde hair that he'd keep in a braid, these almost golden eyes, and most of the time he would wear this red jacket with the Nicholas Flamel insignia on it. I met Yuki before my career even began and I met the three Elric right when Ed's career began and their oldest sister, Joslyn began training to be a soldier. Now the reason why we were heading to Liore was that we caught wind of a priest there who was running The Church of Leto who was creating miracles. We believed that he had something we've been searching for since the beginning. The Philosopher's Stone.

Liore was a town in the middle of the desert, probably why it didn't get a huge number of visitors, at least that's what we believed. I mean, putting a town in a climate where the heat was lethal by day and then at night where the cold was equally as lethal didn't sound appealing to me. Our way to this desert town would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't for the fact that Ed scared off our ride by going on one of his famous short tangents. As I walked along the sandy terrain I wiped some sweat from my brow and let out an almost strangled and tired groan.

Shortly after I heard an equally tired groan come from Ed who trudged behind Yuki and I, not even removing his gloves or coat. But that alone would only do so much for him. "I hate deserts! There's nothing but sand!" He groaned before allowing himself to plop onto the sand. My eyebrows knotted together as Yuki and I stopped with my arms crossing over my chest. "If there was some grass I could make some bread, I'm starving."

A huff came from my chest now looking around the empty area with my eyes squinted from the bright light illuminating from the yellow sand. "Well, we might have been able to get some food if you didn't..." I started but trailed off upon noticing that it was only the three of us. Al was nowhere to be seen. My eyes widen a little as my eyes darted from left to right. "Where's Al?"

Ed lifted his head now getting on his hands and knees to look for his brother. Calling for Al loudly along with Yuki who began to briskly walk around us. "Al? Where'd ya go? Al?" Ed called out.

"Alphonse!" Yuki exclaimed.

From below I heard an echoing and young voice cry out, "Down here!" Then two large metal hands reached from the ground and grab onto Yuki and Ed's ankles. Both of them let out a cry in fright which only resulted in a small snort of a laugh to come from my throat uncontrollably. "I sunk again..."

When recovering Ed let out an annoyed grunt and looked back to the hand wrapped around his ankle. "Reason number two I hate the desert!"

-

The three of us spent a little over ten minutes digging Al out of the sand, creating a large pile of sand beside us. Thankfully it didn't take longer, but that was because as soon as Al could start digging he helped us out. We were out of breath by the time Al was dragged out of this hole in the sand, Ed sitting down on his suitcase, Yuki and I both hunched over. An annoyed huff came from Ed and he fired an irritated scowl at Al. "I don't understand why you keep falling in!"

"I get full..."

"Full of what?" Ed yelled now standing and kicking off Al's chest piece before Yuki and I could even answer to him. Immediately the breast plate fell over released an all new pile of sand the tumbled all over the young alchemist.

My lips crinkled as I held back laughter only to let out muffled chuckles as I shuffled away from him. Yuki let out a soft giggle in response watching the pile this grainy sand conquer Ed's entire body, and finally, Al let out a laugh and quickly attempted an escape. Quickly Ed burst from the sand pile and began to chase after Al in circles. "Get back here!" Ed ordered.

"What're you gonna do?" Al countered.

"Nothing!"

"Then why are you chasing me?"

"Stop and you'll find out!"

"I promise I won't get buried again!"

"Not unless it's by me!"

"Ed!"

How...?

Okay okay... I know what you're thinking so I'll just say it. 'How did these kids get into our military? They should know to not waste their energy in a desert' In which I retort with, yes we knew that. But we got caught up in the mood, just having some thoughtless fun. Well at least most of us were. Despite popular belief, not all State Alchemists are blood thirsty hounds who want nothing more than to kill an entire village. I mean... There are some of those guys but we'll get to them later on. State Alchemists are human, we just happened to be some teenagers in an adult's world, doing an adult job. For as young as we were, we worked to get in and the results of our missions showed them why we got in. Before I get into a tangent I should get back to our topic. Short after... That, we made it into Liore but we really didn't have time to relax, we had to recuperate from our travels in the desert and then focus on the mission at hand.

Much like the desert surrounding Liore, we felt nothing but heat drooling down our necks. Al was unaffected by the heat, Yuki and I were as tired and thirsty as you'd expect, while Ed was hunched over, walking in a zombie-like state. The town was alive, people of all sorts roaming, talking, listening to music on the radio, not a single negative thing could occur as far as the eye could see. That is if Ed dragging himself along didn't count. Despite the joyous setting of the town, my features flared in disgust as I smelt the bitterness of alcohol from somewhere within. I frowned slightly and looked from corner to corner. "You okay Ed?" Yuki asked in a soft voice.

"It's his fault for not stopping when I said," Ed muttered.

I rolled my eyes at this, and I could feel Al doing the exact same thing nearby. "You wouldn't stop either if someone was chasing you!" Al replied.

"Shut up... I'm too tired to fight." Ed groaned in a pitiful and grueling voice. While walking I could hear the sound that sounded like the heavens pouring down. From the sound I felt my body jolt with excitement, my eyes enlarge as I searched from side to side for the source of this running water. "Water... I can almost hear it!" Ed stopped and ran into the next intersection now seeing what I assumed to be the source of the delectable sound. "Wait, I can hear it! Al! Yuki! Pene! Look!"

We walked forward and the moment I saw the fountain with a red liquid spurting out, my stomach seemed to drop. Yuki let out an almost pained moan upon seeing what Ed stared at with such glee. Al, Yuki, and I exchanged glances as Ed cried out with excitement before throwing his suitcase aside so he could freely run to the fountain. "Ed wait!" Al gasped.

"We can't take him anywhere..."

"Ed no," Yuki mumbled.

As Ed ran to the fountain crying out for water Al grabbed the abandoned suitcase and followed his older brother to the fountain of wine. Shortly Ed's sounds of happiness were snuffed out the moment it hit him. By the time Yuki and I came to Ed and Al's side, the red jacketed alchemist had his hands on the fountain with a look of disdain smeared on his features. I frowned at the growing stench and covered up my nose. "That explains the nasty stench I've been smelling." I uttered now grabbing a cup and scooping some of the wine into the small tea cup like glass.

"Is it blood?" Al questioned.

Ed frowned and stared down at the alcoholic substance. "Nope, more like blood red wine."

Yuki crossed her arms over her chest, giving the fountain an almost puzzled look as if she was trying to crack a difficult code. "But why would a town just leave a wine fountain like this? Kids could easily-"

Right on cue, I felt a fist grab onto the back of my vest, tensing my whole body up. I dropped the cup as a middle aged man began to scold me like a child. "Hey, get away from there! You know that's off limits to kids!"

No way, what'd you do?

Oh, I almost started swinging, it's kinda an instinct thing. But Yuki and Al explained what was going on, that it was a misunderstanding, and he just laughed it off and got us some food and drinks.

Laughter filled the air of this outdoor bar as the owner kept reminding everyone about the little accident that occurred, he couldn't get enough of this funny little story. But to be fair, in normal circumstances, it would be a story I would end up telling my kids, so I really didn't mind him taking so much joy in this. "You're out-of-towners, that explains it! You'll have to forgive me for that. I thought you guys were sneaking a little dip of our wine." The man told me with an ear to ear grin.

I could feel my face heat up a little in embarrassment as I set my half empty glass of water back on the bar. "A fountain of free wine, just a tad risky," I said with a smile on my features. "But that means you guys are doin' well."

"Yeah, we do alright here." The man spoke with a content voice, his grin toning down to a casual and lighthearted smile. A split second of quiet unity passed until the man's expression changed and his attention shifted over to his radio. "Oh, I almost forgot! How about a little soul food?" He suggested as he poked at the radio above us for a station.

What began to play was a seemingly calm and relaxing music that one would expect to hear when attending a spa. At least it would be comforting if it wasn't playing on every radio in town while everyone else remained silent as it echoed into our ears. I batted my eyes and looked to Yuki's raised eyebrow and Ed's almost awed expression which was soon dashed away the moment the music stopped and was replaced with religious speakings coming from an older sounding man with a deeper voice. All people in view just stopped whatever they did beginning to pray in the continued silence. For me, that was when things went creepy to eerie.

Ed's features were dosed in confusion as he stared out into the town. "Well that's freakish."

"You can say that again..." I whispered quietly.

"Some kind of religious broadcast?" Al questioned.

"Oughta be," Yuki answered.

Our comments made the man break his concentration to praying and open his eyes to watch us with a narrowed gaze. He leaned forward, the man's face becoming more bitter as each second passed us by. "Your buddy is in a suit of armor, the two of you wears gloves in the desert, the other wears a skirt, and you're calling us freaks?" The man challenged. I grimaced slightly, seeing where he was coming from there; he had me beat. Ed leaned down and began slurping up his orange juice in silence only to have the man's eyes narrow on him. "What's the deal anyway? You street performers?"

Ed spat his drink out from the straw, creating a large mess of juice on the bar. "I don't think so pops! Do I look like a clown to you?"

"Well there must be some reason for journeying out this far." The man replied.

Yuki smiled and leaned forward with her elbows on the bar. "We're just looking for something. So, the guy on the radio, who is he?"

"Why, that's Sir Cornello." The man answered.

"Ah, doesn't ring a bell." Ed quickly stated.

The man's eyes widen and he leaned forward with his hands slapping onto the counter. "You're kidding?! You've never heard of the great prophet Cornello?!"

"Sorry, but no," I answered with a shrug. "What's so great about him?"

"He can perform miracles for one thing. I've never seen anything like it!" A stranger spoke with open mouth grin.

"This town was a god forsaken dust bowl before Cornello got transferred and turned it into a desert paradise." Another stranger spoke, making me regret even asking.

"Cornello can even forgive sins."

"Yeah! We're on the Sun God's good side because of him!"

"He gives us blessings!"

If we let this continue on, the whole town would be shoving reasons into our ears. My face morphed into something that matched the discomfort I felt, Yuki only blinked at the flood of examples of Cornello's good deeds, and Ed frowned while setting his chin on the bar with an overwhelmed smiled. The flooding of responses continued until Ed placed his hands on his head. "Ugh! I just remembered! We have to be somewhere!" He abruptly told everyone before turning his head to Al first and then to Yuki and I. "You guys ready to split?"

Al softly hummed as he nodded, now standing with his helmet banging against the ceiling, making the tiny bar shake at the impact. Enough to where the still blabbering radio came crashing to the ground and into pieces in front of Ed, Yuki, and I. The owner let out a yell in shock before turning to Al with clear agitation. "Now you've done it buddy! What do you expect wearing a stupid tin suit?"

"It's okay, we can fix it for you," Yuki reassured.

"Yeah don't bust a lung," Ed added on, trying to be reassuring.

"It's in a thousand pieces!" The man whined.

"I'm sorry..." Al whispered. "Let me try."

I looked at the pieces left behind and then back to Al with a kind smile. Reaching for my bag I pulled out a spare stick of chalk, now transferring it to Al's gentle hold. "Go for it."

He then got to work, marking on the ground around the radio and crafting a transmutation circle around the particles of the radio. People started to crowd around to witness the work of alchemy that unfolded in front of them, that brought upon voices filled with wonder and curiosity. I watched Al work until the man running the bar caught my attention. "The drawing... What's it for?" He asked, nearly standing on the tips of his toes.

"It's a Transmutation circle..." I responded with a smile. "But, we should let it do all the talking."

After not too long Al finished up the circle and towered over it, relaxing his armored body when he perfected the small circle. "Okay, here it goes." He told himself now placing his hands over the broken radio in the drawn in the circle. In that instant flashes of blue light dashed on the ground, smoke clouding around the radio. As the dust cleared, sounds for their prophet began to return, which made the townspeople explode with gasps of fascination.

The owner gasped out his body hunched over the bar with his jaw nearly hitting the ground. "It's really a land of prophets! Your buddy can work miracles like Cornello!"

"Oh no... It's nothing like that." Yuki corrected. "It's just science, we're Alchemists."

"We're the Elric Brothers." Ed started. "This is Yuki Mustang and Penelope Dewitt. Not to brag but we're pretty well known."

"Elrics? Mustang? Dewitt? Doesn't sound familiar..." One of the men in the crowd muttered.

"We don't have alchemists around these parts."

"I fix things for a living though! Let me know if you need a job!"

Before I could even kindly reject the offer that was given, a woman wearing a brown cloak over a long black dress with a smooth voice like honey spoke. "They don't need work. They're the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric, The Powered Alchemist, Penelope Dewitt, and The Resonance Alchemist, Yuki Mustang." Everyone went silent and shifted their attention to her, even the four of us gave her attention. My eyebrows knotted together at her overall vibe. She shot us a deep stare that exposed her dark, almost inhuman eyes to us that gave me some unease. Her dark hair framed her face perfectly so that she could give any person she wanted an overwhelming amount of sex appeal. "They've been celebrities around East City. They say they're real child prodigies."

I released a deep breath and smiled a little, forcing the negative thoughts in the back of my mind. "Yeah she explained it pretty well."

Instantly some of the towns people gasped inspecting Yuki, Al, and me. "Wow! Real famous people!" People touched at Yuki's automail, poking at Al's armor, flooding me with questions about alchemy and the whip I kept on my leg, leaving Ed with no attention. I raised an uncomfortable smile as people began to inspect me, even when Al was the main star.

"Oh I get it! You got the name Fullmetal cause you wear that armor." A man spoke to Alphonse.

"Hey would you come to my daughter's birthday party?"

"I'm not the Fullmetal Alchemist! He is." Al corrected now pointing to Ed.

Everyone who had their eyes to Al, changed their direction to Ed, almost not believing Al's statement. They weren't taking the statement seriously, like it was a joke. Al, Yuki, and I exchanged glances to each other, fully aware of what was to come next, it was only a matter of how far Ed would go. "What you mean that shortie there?" A townsperson questioned.

Ed growled lowly as he clenched onto the back of two men's shirt's, swinging them around the air, spinning them in circles with him. "Shortie! Can a shortie do this? What else do you want to call me a half pint bean sprout midget? I'm still growing you back-watered desert idiots!" He screamed at the top of his lungs at anyone and everyone. The three of us, as much as we wanted to, couldn't pretend that we didn't know him.

Yuki and I took a moment to let our eyes meet, almost unsure on what to do next. Sure we had ideas but we didn't want to act upon them without thinking. Suddenly a feminine voice appeared, one that seemed to kill anyone with kindness. "I can see there's a lot of excitement here today." The voice cheered. When I turned my attention to her I saw that she was a caramel skinned girl, violet eyes, with black hair and pink bangs framing her face in a perfect fashion, wearing a bright yellow sundress. Everyone went silent the moment her voice came into hearing view, the bartender joyously speaking her name, Rose. "Oh don't mind me, I'd hate to spoil all of the fun."

"That's okay. My name is Alphonse Elric, nice to meet you." Al introduced.

Carelessly Ed set the men back on the ground, grinning at her. "And I'm Edward, Al's older brother. Also known as the Fullmetal Alchemist."

"Older brother? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Ed gritted his teeth together in anger, his body was shaking while being tense all at once when he shot the fired glare at Rose. I let out a small fit of laughter and smiled. The two of us were gonna get along just fine. "I'm Penelope Dewitt, but I go by Pene or Pen. I'm the Powered Alchemist." I greeted with a wide smile.

"I'm Yuki Mustang, the Resonance Alchemist. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Rose gave the four of us a kind smile and the tiniest of giggles at Ed's rather aggressive behavior, knowing full well that he wasn't going to hurt her. The middle aged man let up an exasperated smile and turned to Rose. "Hey Rose, have you finished shopping for today's offering?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Well then, maybe you can take them to temple with you. They say they're looking for something. I bet Father Cornello could help out. You know, have them ask for God's grace." The man suggested turning to us.

Without even thinking I shook my head, trying to kindly reject this offer of help, especially since he was the man we needed to go after. "Oh no, we shouldn't."

"It's alright if you don't have an offering today. And besides, he has rooms for travelers. You can stay there for the night."

Soon Yuki and Al started to shake their heads and hold up their hands in hopes to quiet her down, so they too could kindly refuse as well. Al mumbled, "That sounds nice but-"

"As in matter of fact, we'd love to take you up on that." Ed butted in with a wide smile. "Wouldn't we?"

The moment Ed said this much, Yuki, Al, and I stopped everything, now shifting our gaze to Ed's close eyed smile. "We would?" The three of us asked in a voice of disbelief.

Ed nodded and hummed with his smile not even changing in the slightest. For that Rose began to walk back to where she came from, only to stop when she noticed that the four of us weren't even following her. I think we were still processing what intentions Ed really had on his mind. She turned back to use with that smile still on her face. "Come on now, I don't bite," Rose assured teasingly.

While my three other partners finally began to follow her, I paused for a minute with my lips pressed tightly together, my arms crossed over my chest, and my eyes narrowed to the back of her head. A soft hum came from my mouth before I followed behind her, catching up to Yuki. Right as I caught up, Yuki tapped on my shoulder so that my eyes darted to her. "Pene? That woman from the shop, do we know her?"

"No. Why?" I asked quietly.

"It's just... She knew who we were, and not in the I know of you kinda way."

"You shouldn't worry," Rose started again now catching my eyes the moment she began speaking again. "I'm sure Cornello will help you find what you're looking for." A false smile rose on my face, at this point I was just trying to kind, not wanting to give her or anyone in this town reason to turn against us, at least not right now. Given how big Cornello is here, that'll probably be the way this mission ends. Rose's smile then became teasing and playfully devious. "And besides, if you show him you're faithful I'm sure he'll make you taller!"

I chuckled with a smirk at the small insult directed towards my partner. Making Ed taller, if only we were so lucky. Ed's expression twisted into an angered one before running to Rose's direction while swinging his arms in a flaming fury. "What's wrong with you people? I'm not short! You come from a desert of giants or something!" Ed exclaimed.

"Edward... Please.." Al groaned.

"You want some of this too?" Ed threatened.

Rose is very... Interesting. She seemed like a good person, really nice, and really welcoming; but the way she spoke about Cornello set me off. In fact, the whole town felt strange when Cornello came into the scene. I don't know if it was because of the mission, or the radios, but something felt off. Thankfully it didn't take long to find out why.

The room that we were staying in was nice, two beds accompanied by red and white sheets, a large wooden drawer across from the bed and a window with a view of a graveyard. A grim sight but it ended up being one of those things that I forced back, not wanting to give it another thought. Yuki and I stayed in one room while Ed and Al stayed in the one next door, that is if anything was bound to happen we could get to each other quickly. While I stayed in the room to relax in the cool air and figure out everything we needed to do, Yuki and Al decided to do some poking around to see if they could find anything going on in this place. What Ed was doing, I wasn't too sure myself.

Grabbing a glass pitcher full of water, I filled a nearby cup halfway with water before setting the pitcher back down again. I brought the water up and near the nightstand where a bottle of pills sat nearby, something instinctively smuggled in. The sun sent a blinding reflection into my eyes from the glass, which forced a wince. I stood now walking to the window to close the curtains, that was when I saw Rose. Standing in front of a grave with her pale yellow dress flowing in the wind. Though I couldn't see her face, I knew that she was solemn, mourning, far along enough to not have to wear black. My eyebrows knotted together in thought at the sight. "Don't tell me..." I mumbled quietly to myself.

Yuki coming back and opening the door snapped me out of my thoughts as I quickly jolted my eyes back to where she was. "Hey... You all settled?"

"As settled as I'll ever be."

She nodded softly and sat on her bed with a softened expression. "So, Al and I talked to Rose... She lost her boyfriend, he has a grave out there. He was all she had. Her parents died when she was little and now she's convinced that Cornello can bring him back."

"And that's how he's leading her? Telling her that he bring him back when he really can't? That's so wrong."

"So you don't think he can?" Yuki mumbled. "What if he is a holy man? Have you ever thought that there's something else out there? Something we can't explain?"

I shook my head. "No. I haven't." I flatly stated now walking back to the glass of water I left on the night stand. Popping two yellow pills into my mouth with water to go down, I swallowed so Yuki could see me taking the medication. My eyes shot down to my half empty glass afterward, staring down into the morphed ground through the water and glass. "Well... I actually considered that once. I think that if there was a person watching over us, a god of sorts, why would they allow so much suffering? War, famine... Why inflict that on people who don't deserve that or those who love you? I dunno... The idea of it doesn't sit well with me."

-

Cornello arranged an offering for the next day, in front of the church he stood before the whole town came out to watch him work his miracles. By the time Ed, Al, Yuki, and I arrived we were stuck in the back watching from an absurd distance. One of the first things was to change water into red wine, given their lack of understanding of alchemy, it made sense that they instantly jumped to the idea of the working's being a miracle. But that was all it was. Alchemy. The execution of turning water to wine made my eyebrows raise, but transforming a wooden log into a statue three times his size just left me asking questions. "What'd ya think?" Ed asked from the left.

"It's alchemy," Yuki answered.

"There's no equivalence though," I added.

"Hey guys!" Rose called out now running to where we were with a bright smile on her face. "How are you liking your first miracle gathering? He's amazing isn't he?"

"Well he's an amazing actor, I'll give him that. But those aren't miracles, he's swindling you." Ed said rather bluntly.

That comment alone was enough for Rose's bright demeanor to be knocked down to one of absolute offense. Her light filled eyes were then morphed into a glare. But her glare was as sharp as a sewing needle. "Now Ed, we don't know that. We just know that he's using alchemy and ignoring the laws." Al said.

"What laws?" Rose flatly asked.

I fired a glare when hearing her tone, already feeling her burrowing under my skin. On normal circumstances, I would be mildly annoyed by this response, but considering the rather tense mood I woke up in, I was way past being annoyed. When the truth is revealed, denial rears its nasty head. What comes after that is what really tells me about a person. But what I could tell already is that things won't end well for her, no matter the end result. "Look, alchemy isn't witchcraft, it's a science," I muttered. "People can't wish for things and then have it appear in thin air. That's not how alchemy works. In chemistry a chemical reaction has to be balanced, that's the same in alchemy."

"It's an equation. Your output has to be of equal mass and materials you started with." Yuki simplified.

"The base elements have to be similar too." Al continued. "Like the radio I fixed. I could make it bigger or into a tree or something."

"It's our founding principle: to obtain, something of equal value must be lost," Ed stated.

I frowned and rubbed my temples when the cheering continued to grow, fueling my ever growing headache."But he's disregarding the laws."

Rose's glare grew, her fists tightened in anger. Her face was almost red from either the heat or the anger, it could have easily been both. "Because he's working miracles!" She scolded.

From the crowd, a little girl emerged now handing the priest something that looked like a dead bird. Without batting an eye, as if he knew what he was doing, he closed his hands over the corpse and red sparks danced around his hands. When he lifted his hands the small green bird just fluttered into the air for a few moments before taking his place on his shoulder. My jaw dropped an inch and I batted at my eyes furiously with my lids. What kind of game is this man trying to play? But that was the proof we needed to call him out. "What do you say now Ed, Penelope?" Rose asked in a mocking voice. "I'll bet you can't do that with alchemy. It's a true miracle. It has to be."

My scowl was dragged further down at the absolute ignorance of her. At least she was right about one thing, but everything else couldn't be further from what's honest.

We didn't get along after that.

Well if you add her kind of stubbornness to your kind of stubbornness, it makes sense.

Yeah... After the whole gathering, we decided to make our move. Ed and I would talk with Rose, Al and Yuki would intervene if something were to happen.

Given how you two function already, I can already tell this didn't go well.

The inside of the church was grandiose at the very least, with the large statues, the gold that seemed stainless, smooth stone walls, coloring the church to be holy. The architecture was beautiful. In front of the altar sat Rose, cleaning and dusting at it but being cautious of the two lit candles. Looking to my right I saw Ed close by, the flicker in his eye told me that it was time to work. Ed sat down in front seat with his arm sprawled out on the back, while I sat where his left hand rested. "So let me guess, if you pray and polish the altar enough times someone will come back from the dead?" He asked.

At first, she was silent, her displeasure radiating off her. No smile that she put on her face would change that. That's what she did. She turned to us with that mock-up smile on her face, pretending to be kind to us now. "Something like that." Rose chirped.

Ed released a sigh as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a small worn out notebook. The first page he found was the exact one he wanted to be on, as he leaned back, and began to read. "Water: 35 liters. Carbon: 20 kg. Ammonia: 4 Liters. Lime: 1.5 kg. Phosphorus: 800 g. Salt: 250 g. Saltpeter: 100 g. Sulfur: 80 g. Fluorine: 7.5 g. Iron: 5 g. Silicon: 3 g and a trace of 15 other elements."

"What's that?"

"It's the ingredients of an average adult human body. It goes all the way down to the last speck of protein in your eyelashes." Ed stated now closing the notebook and leaning forward. "And even though science has given us the entire physical break down, there's never been a successful attempt of bringing a human to life. There's still something missing. Something scientists haven't been able to find in centuries of research. So what makes you think that hack job priest with his parlor tricks gonna be able to?"

There was a silence at Ed's question, which gave me a chance to butt in. "Oh, and in case you're wondering all of those little ingredients Ed listed off can be bought with a child's allowance. Humans are cheap and there's no magic to it."

"Well if there's no magic to it, then you bring someone back to life!" Rose dared.

"Just in a matter of time Rose, science will find a way. Science is the answer to everything." Ed stated now standing up from the row. "If I were you, I'd drop the scriptures and pick up an alchemy book. We're the closest things to gods there are."

"You're not a god, you're nothing close to it." Rose spat.

A hiss slithered past my teeth and a fake cringe crossed my features at her comment, I wasn't hurt any by her comment. I leaned forward with my eyes meeting her's and locking. "Hate to break it to you, but the sun isn't one either. The sun is a mass of hydrogen. If you get close to it in the slightest way you're going to burn." I countered with more grim in my voice than I wanted to show off. The room became silent. From where I was sitting, I couldn't tell what Rose was thinking. If she was starting to process this or if she was thinking of another way to put words in our mouths.

Whatever it was, her thoughts were silenced when a gunshot echoed into the air, making my body jump instantly upon hearing the noise. From the direction of the noise, Al's helmet flew into view and dropped right at Ed and I's feet while the rest of his armor slumped to the ground laying motionless. Beside him one of the men from the church shoved Yuki into view with a gun pointed at her head. My eyes remained on Yuki for a moment before going to Al and then returning to Yuki.

Rose went pale, staring in horror at the scene. "Cray! What are you doing!"

"These four are enemies of God! This is his will, not mine!" The man stated with his finger trailing to the trigger.

Suddenly Al sat up, showing his emptied suit of armor. "I don't think so mister!"

Cray gasped and dropped Yuki upon the reveal of Al's functioning and empty body. Quickly I ran to Rose covering her ears just in time for Yuki to snap and let out a high pitched noise that almost rivaled the firing of a gun. I grunted in pain, but at least Cray was taking this worst than I was even after the noise stopped. Instantly I removed my hands from Rose and focused on bringing myself comfort again. Ed reached down shortly after the end of the sound based attack, grabbing the helmet and flung it to the back of Cray's head. He tumbled to ground which sent Al's helmet flying into the air and back down again. "I got it, I got it!" Al cried before catching it in his hands.

"Strike!" Ed cheered with an ear to ear grin now reaching over and giving me a high five in which I returned with a small smile.

The girl let out a ghoulish scream, her face pale, those eyes wide in horror, her hands covering her mouth. Her eyes couldn't leave how Al's armor was empty. But with little warning about him, I wasn't surprised that she had this scared reaction. "He doesn't have a head!" She gasped.

Ed let out a carefree chuckle when patting at Al's breastplate. "Yeah that's Al!"

"Please don't be scared. This is how I am." Al explained.

"You're not there!"

Al placed the helmet back to where it needed to go, so he could properly look at Rose. "It's true, I don't have a body, but I'm here. This is my punishment for setting foot onto holy ground where mortals are forbidden. We made a mistake Rose, and we're paying for it."

She started to back away, letting out a scream before running away, further into the depths of the church. Ed called for her, telling her to wait, but to no avail. She was already gone to tell Cornello.

So Al was... Hallow...?

Yeah.

And you knew this?

Yep.

How?

We'll get to that another time.

We followed Rose down the halls, getting deeper and deeper into this maze of a church, and soon we found an opened door calling our name. We poked our head into the opened and dark room with the dimmed light of the halls not aiding it at all. My eyes narrowed, as I searched the room, not being able to see a thing at first. Ed let out a playful scoff. "I can't see a church social down here, can you?"

Suddenly the lights burst with life, destroying the masking darkness, and showing off the wide room with pillars and stairs leading to a second level. In the back of the room, high above us was Cornello and Rose, Cornello standing with a molded firm face with the bird from earlier resting on his shoulder, motionless, all the while Rose stood with an almost defeated look on her face. Without even looking to Rose, Cornello stepped forward and spoke. "I see you wrestled with the darkness and prevailed. Thank you for bringing them here." He told her, not even looking away from the four of us. "State Alchemists, brutal enforcers. I had a feeling one of you guys would show up someday."

"Oh please cut the chit-chat. You know why we're here." I muttered.

Cornello smirked, raising his hand high so we could see his golden ring with a little round red stone in the center. "Do you mean this, young lady?" He taunted.

My eyes narrowed on the ring with a small grin peeking the ends of my lips. I could feel the determination glow in my eyes as I kept my gaze on the ring. Beside me, I could feel Ed's uncontrollable excitement at the reveal of the stone, he was ready to take it and blow this town. On the other hand, Yuki and Al were cooled and calm about the situation, sure they were ready to get this over with, but they were more calculative about it. "Alchemy without a transmutation circle and bypassing all the laws of Equivalent Exchange, that would mean one thing." Yuki started.

"Yes, the mythical gem. The legendary amplifier, the Philosopher's stone."

"That's it guys, it's ours!" Ed breathed out, talking as if we already had the stone within our grasp. "Cough it up Cornello! That stone belongs to me now and if you hand it over peacefully I won't tell the people here what you're doing!"

"What's that? Restoring their town peace and prosperity? Do you know what would happen if my miraculous wonders suddenly stopped? Nobody wants that." Cornello argued with his lips twisting into a sickening smile when shifting his attention to Rose. "Do they Rose?"

"Don't listen to him Rose!" Yuki yelled.

"He's a con-man!" I added.

Cornello smirked at the two of us. "Nonsense! Would a con man restore life to a dying town? When I arrived this town was full of strife and I brought peace. They came to me with parched throats and I created water. I built buildings for them and even gave them money. They believe that heaven had forsaken them but I gave them hope and became their prophet. Why does the military want to destroy all of this?"

"I don't care for what the military wants! I'm here for me!" Ed stated.

"What?"

"I need that stone! We need it to make something right again!"

"So that's it!" Rose finally screamed out in anger. "This all about you and what you want! What about us? You don't care!"

"Rose we're just trying to-"

"It's no use, Al," Ed muttered lowly.

Rose's look of fury soon deflated and her body began to shake. There was no convincing her that something was wrong right now. Especially considering Ed's response to the stone. Cornello expression flared. "Enough! There is no point in arguing. If you want the Philosopher's stone you're just going to have to take it!" He exclaimed all while raising his hand.

The room filled with a bright red light as I felt the solid ground under me shake. Suddenly the ground crumbled under my feet as it changed into soft sand. I let out a small gasp at the wave and fell over with my feet digging into the sand. Yuki tumbled but quickly recovered, Ed seemingly had no problem with this, while Al was being drifted away by the wave of sand and was being buried once again.

I cursed under my breath as I pulled my feet from the ground. "Yuki! Get Al! Ed and I will handle this."

Yuki nodded firmly and ran in the direction in which Al went, beginning to search for where he was swept away.

"Armor is a disadvantage in soft sand! You can't draw transmutation circles in it either!" He reminded us. As I stood, Ed and I traded glances with a raised eyebrow. Cornello laughed and began to back forward with his hand now touching the wall. "Let me introduce you to my creations! You of all people will be able to appreciate it: a Chimera."

From the shadows, a low and animalistic growl roared to life. What emerged was a what remained of a lion that was transmuted with a reptile animal which gave it the scaled tail that swayed in a threatening manner, and hind the legs were that of a large bird with talons that were just as sharp as the lion's claws. I snarled in disgust and glared at the beast. "You combined animals, that's the most disturbing alchemy there is."

Cornello grinned and leaned forward now feeling the adrenaline of battle he wasn't even taking part in himself. Over the monster's roaring Cornello laughed out, "Maybe so but most effective!"

The chimera began to race towards us with his sharp teeth being bared, letting out another monstrous roar. Ed watched this and then lowered his head when the lion started to rise again. A smirk was on his lips. "Fine, big fella, wanna play? Let's go for it!" He spoke in a challenging voice. Then he clapped his hands together and slammed onto the sandy ground. A blue light took over the room as he stood tall and allowing a spear to rise from the ground.

"H-H-How'd you do that without a transmutation circle!" Cornello screamed.

The lion finally arrived jumping forward to attack Ed. He grunted now adjusting the spear and swinging it at the lion, the pole crashing against his chest. As the lion began to fall I clapped my hands, setting my right hand on the handle of my whip, and firing the rope at the lion's forehead giving it a shock. It roared out and finally fell to the ground. "That oughta get him off our back for at least a minute."

So, my electric whip. Let me explain how it works and the overall anatomy of it, it's pretty specific, but I'll make it quick. So the handle is made of graphite, which means it doesn't conduct electricity, it has a transmutation circle carved into it so that if I needed to electrify something I could just rub the circle and activate it. The rope, however, is made up of metals that do conduct electricity such as copper and aluminum, commonly found in wires, and it also includes some barbed wire to not only aid the shock but to make sure the rope sticks to whatever or whoever is on the receiving end of it. Sure, it wasn't the prettiest weapon but it would get the job done.

"Bring me their heads my pet!" Cornello yelled while throwing the small green bird from before.

Before our eyes, the bird went through a metamorphosis from a small bird into a large beast with talons as large as both Ed and I. It let out a loud mangled cry as it swept down to us. When it attacked at Ed, the bird easily broke through the spear and went for Ed's left leg.

"Now snap it!"

Ed's wild smirk returned to his face keeping his footing, much to the beast's displeasure. "Wrong leg pal!" Ed grunted now kicking the bird off him. I staggered back as Ed threw his right fist back. "And here's the right arm!" The fist collided with the bird's face, sending it flying back and onto the ground.

But we couldn't have a moment of relaxation, for the lion came charging for Ed, letting out a roar before chomping into Ed's right arm. To Cornello's amusement, Ed did let out a frightened yell and I certainly found myself panicking for a moment. Yet after taking a moment to look at the situation we were in, I relaxed and started trailing around to Ed's right while I secured a section of the whip around the palm of my left hand. Needless to say, Cornello's excitement was short lived, and Rose's horror was prolonged. "What's wrong you poor bastard? Can't get a good taste?" Ed growled lowly as he rose the lion up so that his claws barely touched the ground. His eyes flickered to me before throwing the chimera in my direction.

The hefty weight of the lion collided onto my tiny body, nearly knocking me down. I gritted my teeth putting the rope around the lion's neck as it struggled against me, further shoving the barbs into my palm. My thumb pressed against the transmutation circle, activating a wave of electricity to make the creature cry out in my hold and allow my entire body to feel the surge of unsettling energy as the creature fell numb in my arms. I released the beast, trying to catch my breath as the headache went from painful to excruciating. I could feel my eyes watering up, my body feeling painfully tingly.

"That's impossible! Those claws on your leg, the teeth on your arm!" Cornello gasped. "No one could survive that! Unless... Your limbs! They're fake!"

Slowly I lifted my head to see Ed's hardened with his left hand going for his right shoulder. "Brilliant deduction." Ed snarled. Fabric began to tear from his red coat and his black clothing underneath, the gleam of his metal limbs coming into the limelight. Above I could Rose resisting the urge to look away. "Don't look away, Rose! You need to see what happens when you try to bring a human to life! When you cross into God's territory or whatever you call it! Is this what you want!" The clothes tore away shoving off the thing she needed to see. His automail right arm. "Look!"

"His arm... His leg, their machines." Rose sputtered. She quickly turned to me for a response from me, or maybe a chance to not look at Ed's metallic limbs. However, she couldn't find any comfort out of me. Her face went even paler, if that was possible, at the sight of me. "Y-Your face... Your eyes!"

My tired eyes dashed to Cornello. "Crossing into the land God is a nasty game, the price is different for everyone, you can end up losing your limbs, or losing parts of your brain."

"Now I understand you both. You crossed the line you did what was strictly forbidden! You both tried to create human life and your bodies were taken to the other side!" Cornello explained.

I raised my hand to my cheek, wiping away at the blood with the back of my hand, the sight alone made the fatigue grow twenty pounds. Looking back to Rose, I gave her a serious stare. "Like I said, if you even try to get close to the sun, you'll burn."

Cornello's eyes twitched, gritting his teeth together as he spoke. "Apparently so! But you two were crazy enough to find out for yourselves! You are the Fullmetal and Powered! The Fullmetal Alchemist and The Powered Alchemist!


	3. Body of the Sanctioned

"Now I understand you both. You crossed the line you did what was strictly forbidden! You both tried to create human life and your bodies were taken to the other side!" Cornello explained.

I raised my hand to my cheek, wiping away at the blood with the back of my hand, the sight alone made the fatigue grow twenty pounds. Looking back to Rose, I gave her a serious stare. "Like I said, if you even try to get close to the sun, you'll burn."

Cornello's eyes twitched, gritting his teeth together as he spoke. "Apparently so! But you two were crazy enough to find out for yourselves! You are the Fullmetal and Powered! The Fullmetal Alchemist and The Powered Alchemist!”

So… Ed and Al also... 

Yeah they did, and Cornello being the man that he was, he twisted it so that it fits into his mind game with Rose. He had her wrapped around his finger for the most part. But there is no doubt that Rose came out of this differently, for better or worst.

The room was filled with silence as Cornello stared both Ed and I down with his hardened eyes of fury, the air becoming almost solidified by the intensity. Cornello let out a harsh hum. “Well, that does answer a riddle. Why the military give pups like you two a name so stern as Fullmetal and Powered. They're both literal.” He said to himself before looking back to the still petrified Rose. “See Rose, alchemists forbid their own from transforming lead into gold, but there’s one practice that’s more taboo. A technique forbidden by man and nature itself: alchemy... On human souls.”

A gasp escaped from Rose when the realization of that crashed into her mind. I wouldn’t lie if I said that I felt bad for her. This was a lot to take in all at once. My body relaxed as I felt some of the adrenaline evaporate and the shame of my past actions tore into me. Slowly a breath drew into my body as Al and Yuki began to come to our sides again.

Cornello raised a demented smirk and his amused voice boomed as he spoke into a yell. “You miserable kids! Messing around in human alchemy without knowing its penalty! You stepped on the toes of God”

“You don’t know what happened!” Yuki argued.

“Yuki.” Ed lowly said.

“But we just wanted…” Al started, his voice grimly quiet. “We just wanted to see mom's face again... See her smile.”

I gritted my teeth and lowered my head with my eyes squeezing shut. “My sister was all I had left, I just wanted her back…”

“But you failed, didn’t you?” Cornello mocked.

My teeth clenched together, a growl rumbled from my throat, fists tightening so that my short nails began to mark into my skin. From my right, Ed took a breath, “Yeah, I'd label that a failure alright. Al lost his body while I lost an arm and a leg. With Penelope's attempt, she lost parts of her brain as well as her life.” He muttered while raising his head upwards along with his automail arm. “We ignored every sign because we were reckless and we wanted it bad enough! Rose, this is what happens when you try to bring back what's dead! You really want to go through with that?”

Rose remained silent, her face was pale, staring at us with a staggered and startled expression as she started taking steps back. Her shoulder met with Cornello’s empty palm, holding her with a calmed expression once more. “Don't let them worry you, Rose. You forget that the Sun god Leto has blessed me with a Philosopher’s stone.” The look of plastic comfort shattered as he turned to us with a twisted smirk. “Besides, I have far more experience than these heretic kids did.”

“Don’t be stupid!” I yelled, firing a glare at Cornello. “No matter tricks you have up your sleeve there are things that you can’t change!”

“Oh, then why are you so anxious to get the stone?” He countered while showing off his stone. “You want to beat the laws of equivalence, just as I do, and bring your mommy and your little sister back?”

“Wrong holy man!” Ed yelled. “All we want it to get our bodies normal again! See, we don’t lie about what’s possible. We didn’t start a cult.”

“Mr. Cornello, we'll ask you one last time... Please, give us the stone.” Yuki requested, extending her hand to him.

Cornello smirked. “You State Alchemists are damned! May the wrath of God fall upon your heads.”

“Cut that crap!” I complained.

“Get down here and I'll show you some wrath!” Ed demanded.

From behind Cornello, I could see sparks of red from transmuting appear which was enough for Rose to put some distance between them. My eyes narrowed as I prepared myself to fight off another Chimera. What Cornello pulled out from behind him was a large machine gun that he slammed onto his shoulder and started to fire away at the four of us. As the trail of bullets dug into the sand and towards us, I slammed my palms together and set them on the ground now creating a thick wall in the knick of times. By the end of the transmutation, my palm rested against the wall, feeling the vibrations of bullets colliding into the wall. All I could hear was the gun popping, I could smell the powder flying, every sense was surrounded by the gun for a moment. When the sound died off I let out a sigh of relief and closed my eyes. “That was a close one, huh?” I shuddered now slowly lowering myself to my knees. My fatigue weighing my entire body down.

“H-Hey!” Ed stammered upon seeing this.

“Pene!” Al and Yuki gasped.

Suddenly I heard the door slam open, forcing my head to shoot up as a man yelled out for Cornello. From behind Al, I saw Cray standing in front of a crowd of men with his breathing furiously upon seeing us. “You…” He snarled at the four of us before raising his gun and opening fire. Bullets jumped from Al’s body and ricocheted elsewhere.

Ed began running for the closest wall he could, calling out to us. “Al! Yuki! This way!”

Quickly Al lifted me into his arms and ran for the direction with Yuki close by. Cornello scoffed and shot his eyes to us. “You fools! You’re running into a dead end!”

“Like I always say…! Can’t find a door,” Ed started while clapping his hands and setting them on the wall. “make your own!” A bright blue light shone momentarily before creating large double doors. And with that, Yuki, Al, Ed, and I made our escape.

We knew we weren’t going to get that stone so easily, charging head first and demanding for the stone was just not gonna work. So, we hatched up a plan, it could go wrong, but don’t all plans have the potential of failing?

The plan was already in action, Yuki already moved out of town until the dust settles, meanwhile Al, Ed, and I stayed in town. We deliberated and started to execute our plan at Goma Street in the place of a Leto statue. Ed sitting down with his metal fist resting under his chin on my left while Al’s armor stood to my right. I huffed and wiped at my eyes delicately with my palms. “If we really wanted the stone we would’ve taken it by now, so I don’t understand why they see us the way they do.”

Ed frowned and looked over. “Penelope you should get some rest before this gets worse.”

My eyes darted to him, his expression hadn’t even changed in the slightest. In return, I shrugged softly before placing my head on his right fleshed out leg. But the very moment I closed my eyes I heard the radio above us buzz to life.

People of Liore, this evening a pair of unbelievers tried to take the life of Father Cornello. One short and blonde, one short with brown hair, one with black hair and brown eyes, and the other wearing an armor. Father Cornello asks that you all stay in your homes. He's worried about our safety, please, take all necessary precautions.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I grumbled tiredly.

However the townspeople didn’t even seem to listen, instead, they felt the need to come hunting us down with kitchenware. From where we sat I could hear the angry men and furious women morphing together to create a mob that gathered in front of us, surrounding us, no way to escape out of this. I cursed under my breath and placed my hand on my forehead. “No question guys, they’re the ones! Three of the short newcomers and their tin man.” One of the men yelled.

Before I could even respond, Ed stood sending me tumbling over with my face smashing into the ground. A small pained ‘ow’ came from my lips that were only drowned out by Ed’s rant. “Who are you callin a mousy little pipsqueak!” Ed screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Nobody said that! Now back off!” The man barked. “We got more important business to settle!”

“What kind of depraved souls are you! How could you go after the profit!”

“We welcomed you here! You made us believe you were good!”

I grunted, now forcing myself to stand and step forward now placing a hand on Ed’s shoulder as I passed. “Thanks for dropping me like that,” I said quietly to him before addressing the lady who spoke. “Ma’am, we never asked you to believe anything about us. But your priest, he’s a phony who uses alchemy!”

“Liar!” A feminine voice cried out. My calmed expression died, as the crowd parted and Rose was exposed to be the owner of the voice. She glared at me, her hardened gaze meeting with my exhausted and now irritated eyes. “Just now, my boyfriend spoke to me. Cornello is bringing him back.”

There was no convincing her at all. He does one trick and then she falls back into his hands, even after seeing the absolute nastiness. To make it worse, her likability within the town only furthers the delusion that Cornello created for everyone here.

“You mean ol' Kain we lost in the accident? He was a good kid, good for you Rose!” A man beamed.

Suddenly the attention shifted back to both Ed and I, their happiness shifting back into offended anger. “There, ya see! He's not the first either! There's many that have been brought back!” A woman argued crudely.

“She’s right!”

“Yeah!”

Ed and I exchanged puzzled glances, almost not believing what we were witnessing. This town felt more and more like a trainwreck, the tighter Cornello’s hold on everyone became. We had no idea what to say to the absolute absurdity occurring before us. Thankfully Ed could figure something out. “Has anyone actually seen these people close up? Cause I heard they all left town as soon as they were brought back-”

“Look!” A townsperson butted in. “Over there!”

Upon looking in the direction the man pointed, I saw them. Statues walking by themselves cutting through the crowd in mighty glory, heading straight towards us. A look of displeasure washed over my face, just by watching this unfold. While everyone gasped, staring in awe, moving aside for them, both Ed and I watched with our jaws hitting the ground up until seven statues surrounded the three of us.

My eyes darted around, catching glimpse of Cray with his hands behind his back, holding a sick smile on his face. In a quick moment, a statue drew it’s spear back and slammed it right into Al’s breastplate and throwing him aside. Both Ed and I shifted our attention to him, worry crossing over our features, crying out his name before something brute and cold slammed into the back of our necks. I dropped like a fly, the last thing I heard was the destruction to the armor.

O-Oh my god… So they straight up killed him?

You’ll see.

You’ll see? You just initially told me that a child stuck in a suit of armor was killed and you just smugly say ‘you’ll see what happens next’!

Not like that, but yeah. That’s exactly what I’m telling you. You’ll see what happens next. So-

What about Yuki? What happened to her? She made it out of town okay, right?

You’ll see.

Penelope!

I can’t just tell you everything so early on. It ruins the surprise. Like I was saying, I woke up the next day is a windowless cell.

When I awoke, I felt a stiffness in my arms as they were held up by chains on the wall and a discomfort as I was asleep while sitting. A wince crossed my features as my eyes batted awake and soaking the details of the room into my brain. Nothing like the nicer room we were in before. It lacked windows, furniture, and the only thing that I could stare at was the wooden door in front of me. Nonetheless, the room felt like a large walk in oven that I was being cooked in. I huffed and searched my legs, seeing my whip and my watch were both nowhere on my body. Shaking my head, I let out a tired laugh. “What an absolute idiot.”

My attention shifted away upon hearing the jingling of keys behind the door, tensing up my whole body expecting the worse. Some form of torture, being silenced, anything could be behind the door coming inside. When the door finally opened and Rose stepped in with a plate of food and lowered face, the tension melted away. I sighed in relief. “Oh, Rose. Thanks for the food, I’m absolutely starving.” She only set the food at my feet and stood now walking towards the door in silence. “W-Wait, I can’t exactly eat my food like this, can you maybe unchain me or-” I started but stopped when she grabbed the door knob. “Rose. The last thing we wanted was to hurt someone…” That was enough to get her to stop, but not even speak or look at me. Slowly shifting in the chains, I looked aside and frowned. “But… If it makes you happy, I wish he’s real.”

She stayed for a moment before leaving and locking the door behind her. My eyes narrowed slightly on the door as I heard her footsteps fade away into nothing. I sighed and tore my eyes to the food that was left for me. “Now how do I get from Point A to Point B?” I muttered to myself and looking at the tray and even poking at it with my foot.

From behind I felt vibration, I heard digging. My head perked up, my body scooting forward with my back arching slightly to allow dirt and broken bricks to burst from the wall. With the space I allowed, Yuki crawled out, her whole body covered in dust from the stone building. “Hey, I thought you were setting up in Ed’s cell?”

“We were but both Al and I agreed that we should check up on you,” Yuki replied inspecting me. “You look rough.”

“I mean given yesterday’s day, I slept like a rock. But despite the empty belly, the throbbing headache, and the cramping arms, I’m decent.”

Yuki nodded and her eyes caught glance of the food then over to my hung hands. An eyebrow rose at the sight. “How do they expect you to eat?”

“I know right! It’s ridiculous!” I exclaimed in outrage. Out of all the things, I didn’t know this would be the thing that made me angry. Leaning back, my cheeks puffed in anger even more so when I heard the jingle of the chains above me. “I mean… I’m not surprised, Rose did give me the food.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“She hates me! I’m pretty sure… I mean if she does… The feeling’s mutual.”

She remained silent, not arguing against me, probably seeing where I was coming from. Given everything, I would be startled if she didn’t hate us. Al and Yuki are maybe decent in her book, but Ed and I are probably the last people she would want to help. We’ve been vocal and rather blunt with our beliefs. But I think her attitude and refusal to see even after what she’s seen is why Rose is on my bad side. Yuki cleared her throat and smiled lightly. “In other news, the plan is going well. Al is getting things set up in Ed’s cell, also we’re gonna try to get Rose on our side.”

“Good luck with that.”

Yuki rolled her eyes slightly at this, placing her hands on her hips. “Our way of convincing Rose may be better than your’s and Ed’s way.”

“That’s fair.”

Reaching into her pocket, Yuki popped out her pocket watch, flipping it open and inspected the time. She sighed and slipped it back into her pocket. “Well, I gotta head out. Good luck Pene.”

I nodded firmly and made space for her to crawl back into the hole just long enough for her finish pulling her head inside. My head turned so I looked at her over my shoulder. “You gonna be able to get out easily?”

She tsked under her breath above the sounds of chalk scratched onto the ground, that alone was the answer to my question. “Doesn’t matter if I can get out easily, I just gotta.”

“Well good luck to you. I’ll see you when this is over.”

“Right…”

Sounds of a transmutation filled the air as the wall was repaired and I was by myself once more.

So both Al and Yuki were okay?

Yes. They hid from the town and snuck around until this whole mess was over. All Ed and I had to do was to get caught and have Cornello talk.

Did they get Rose on your side?

Sorta? I’ll get to that later.

It could have been minutes, hell maybe an hour until the next person showed up. The larger man, Cray opened the door with another ring of keys in his hands. He stepped to me, unlocking my hold on the wall in silence before pushing me up to my feet. “Father Cornello wants to speak with you,” Cray muttered.

“Can I eat first?”

“No.”

Wow. That was rude. Did they want you to starve or something?

Probably.

To my surprise, my eyes weren’t covered when I was being dragged around the lower levels of the church, which leads me to believe they didn’t intend on leaving alive. If this goes well, he just made a major mistake. When making it to a door, Cray held onto the chains with one hand while the other fiddled with the keys to the door in front of us. Unlocking the door I saw Cornello standing in front of a chained up, now giving my dragged entrance attention. Cray then proceeded to chain me back to the wall before leaving and closing the door behind him. “Ah yes, the other heathenous alchemist.” Cornello greeted.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to call us that, especially since your charade is about to fall apart.” I spat, now catching glance of Ed’s food. Untouched. Rose must have given him food too.

“The faithful are not likely to distinguish upon alchemy and the works of God,” Cornello stated shrugging off my statement. “Really, as long as I'm bringing happiness what do they care where it comes from?”

Ed raised his head higher, giving Cornello a smug look. “Right, so what’s in it for you, besides all the kowtowing?”

Cornello let out an amused snicker in response to Ed’s question.

“What? Is it the money you’re after?” Ed continued.

“Oh, I can get all the money I want from the offerings,” Cornello replied with a sly smirk now turning his back on us. “But you two think too small. I'm making believers who would gladly throw their lives away in my name and why not? They believe I'll resurrect him. They aren't afraid to die. There is no greater army than those with a holy call. Mark my words, in a few years I'll have a following large enough to tear this country apart and rebuild it in my name!”

A sigh was released from Ed’s lips as he lowered his hands, completely chain free as he grabbed the small loaf of bread from his tray. His teeth tore the bread and the smug expression seemed to get heavier on his face. “Makes no difference to us. Afterall, there’s no real way to bring people back to life, once you cut us down we're gone for good.” Ed muttered.

“I’m afraid that’s right,” Cornello stated now turning back to us, but noticing how Ed was chained and munching on his bread. “Even with a Philosopher’s Stone, I wouldn't dare try human alchemy. I'd end up like you two, and why would a king risk his life for the sake of his mindless pawns?” Before he could continue on, what Ed was doing finally hit him. His crazed expression immediately crumbled as he saw Ed was unchained. “Wait a second…” In response Ed grinned and scooted closer to where I was, starting to work on my chained hands, but more importantly showed the hole in the wall behind him with an active microphone and recording set. He gasped out in horror, nearly jumping out of his skin. “What! How long has that thing been on!”

“Hmmm, I’d like to say maybe since the mindless pawns destroying the country bit, but I could be wrong,” I replied as my hands were freed and quickly lowered.

“How did you get my broadcasting equipment!”

“Al and Yuki rigged it up!” Ed stated with a grin. “I know you smashed him to pieces and Yuki was nowhere to be seen, but that was just some metal we whipped up to look like him and Yuki left town for the night.”

“Pretty slick, no?”

Cornello started to back away from us, his breathing getting heavy and ragged. “N-No! My children, they lie! Don’t believe them!” He screamed now pulling the machine gun from yesterday out into view, firing away at the recording set and destroying it in anger.

Quickly Ed and I dashed away into Cornello’s blind spot, with Ed transmuting his automail arm into a blade. The moment the firing stopped Ed came closer and sliced through the gun like a warm knife to butter. “Oh and by the way, I don’t get my skills from a pocket watch and neither does my partner.”

Gasps of air flowed out of Cornello unevenly, trying to process in his mind the scene that unfolded before him. He dropped whatever remained of his gun before fleeing the room with those gasps turning into heavy breathing that echoed the farther and farther he got away. Ed scoffed and ran forward. “Let’s go Pene!”

I nodded firmly now grabbing the bread that left on his tray shortly after Cornello started shooting and stuck the unchewed end in my mouth. While running I bit down on the bread, only to frown at the roughness and stiffness of what was in my mouth. Almost hard enough to be fake. Halfway through the hall I dropped the bread and continued to run. “Stale bread…” I muttered under my breath before continuing on.

-

The early exposure of Cornello sparked immediate outrage from the people in town, already crowding together to protest in front of the church. People who worked had to hold them back, even when they started to question what was really happening and if they truly heard the broadcast correctly. When arriving, Cornello was already standing aside, trying to hold the calm facade even more but streaks of panic springing from his voice. “My children!” He started in a loud voice. “The nonbelievers have used their science to impersonate me! It is a conspiracy of the devil! But witness as the great Leto redeems me with vengeful light! Behold God’s power!” Raising his hand so the red sparks of transmutation rose again from his ring. From all the around the statues of Leto shone with a purple light for a moment before they began to shift and stir starting to roam once more. They moved closer to the crowd as they spoke and whispered to themselves in disbelief.

Ed and I exchanged some clear looks of frustration, even when he was exposed he’s still calling this the powers of God. I crossed my arms over my chest while placed his on his hips. While the crowd murmured to themselves, Cornello turned to us, his eyes meeting our glares. “You’re fresh out of warnings, give this up,” I growled in a low tone.

“You didn't fool me with your little display down there.” He muttered now digging into his pockets, showing off the pocket watches and my whip. “Without these you the only alchemy you can perform is to your own metal arm.”

“Is that what you think?”

“Know what?” Ed growled. “You’re not the only one who can’t stand doubters, preach.”

Both Ed and I clapped our hands, blue sparks glowed from our hands from the moment the surge of power flowed into our fingertips to when our hands hit the ground. These streaks of light danced around us for a moment before traveling behind us and then back inside the church. Slowly I lifted my head and shot him a cold stare. “Here’s the fist of God.” I spat as the ground began to shake, dust and dirt spurted out of the doors of the church and even the ceiling as a statue of Leto crashed through the church, marching closer.

“I-I don’t believe it! Not even the Philosopher’s Stone can move an object like that!” Cornello cried.

Rings and pocket watches have nothing to do with our abilities. We were Alchemists and nothing could ever change that.

The statue towered over Cornello, drowning him in the shadow. It drew a fist back and then sending it down to Cornello no matter how loud his scream in terror grew. But he wasn’t hit, instead, it was the closest statue to him, which fell just by the sheer force of this stone fist. Dirt flew in the air, forcing me to shield my eyes with my left hand and close my eyes until the harsh air passed. When pulling my hand away I saw Cornello cowering and staring at the statue in horror. His shaky knees lowered him to the ground as he sat, with his gaze never leaving the figure as he went down. Ed started to walk to Cornello and I followed close behind, to him probably at terrifyingly slow pace. He growled now forcing himself back on his feet and shielding his ringed finger. “No! I won't let you two have it! You can't take the stone!” Cornello screamed now flexing his hand and triggering the stone to activate with a bright red light.

I grabbed Ed’s wrist, stopping him from moving in fear of what's to come. Instead, Cornello’s body went tense, sounds of pain rumbled out between his teeth and he crumbled to his knees with his body hunched over. Before either of us could take a step forward Cornello rose his whole arm, in all its revolting glory. It was deformed, twisted, limp, wires of different colors, gears, and metal purging from his skin, veins nearly bursting from his skin, his whole limp pulsing like a beating heart. “A rebound?” I shuddered.

Ed and I quickly ran to Cornello’s side, inspecting what was happening to Cornello’s body. The only damage seeming to happen was in his arm. Ed grabbed his wrist and rose it to his gaze, his eyes now meeting the flickering stone. Finally, the color went dim, cracking across the orb of power before dissolving into nothing leaving a metal band around Cornello’s finger. My expression dropped, not believing what I saw. The stone, an absolute fake. The thing we were chasing was a fake. “An imitation…?” Ed murmured in shock. “After all of this… After all the trouble you put us through even the stone is fake?” He asked his voice getting louder as he stood again with his face looking to the sky. “Quit jerking me around!”

You can’t be serious…

Oh, I’m dead serious. The stone was fake, just like him. It was fitting but frustrating.

How did he even get a stone?

That is a story for a different day. 

Wait so he didn’t want to perform Human Transmutation and yet he told Rose he’d bring her boyfriend back? How was that gonna work? Like what was he gonna do, turn him into carrots?

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled that, but he didn’t from what I hear. It was some other… Thing. I don’t think even Yuki or Al could describe it accurately and I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask Rose anything.

So what happened next?

First off, we got our watches back and I also got my whip back. We then gathered our things and started to head out. There was no way we wanted to stay and witness what came later from the Cornello scandal. But of course, we got one last visit.

My watch was tucked away in my pocket once more and my whip was back in its holster as well, as the four of us sat at a bridge near the end of town. Our faces tired, our clothes tattered and dirtied from the fights we had endured. Yuki sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Just another wild goose chase…”

“Here I thought we could finally put you back in the flesh again,” Ed started now looking to Al before looking to me, “and fix those holes in your brain.”

“Penelope’s the first we fix…” Al corrected.

“No, you have it rougher and that automail is tough on you, Ed.”

Ed sighed and stood now shoving his pocket watch back into his pocket. “Nothing left to do but start the search again.”

Right as the rest of us began to stand we heard Rose stomp forward and speak in an angered voice. She said, “You should have never come here.” I stood and looked to her, firing a glare at her for everything. The tone, the words, the stance, everything made my blood boil in frustration, and she wasn’t even finished yet. “Father Cornello gave us hope. What right did you have to take that away? With him, we believed we could do anything, even bring back the dead. We're a desert village we had nothing before that!”

“So what you mean to tell us is that we should have left things the way they were, let him lie to you and deceive you and everyone in this town?” I questioned.

“Well, why not? What’d I have to live for when I know that Kain won't come back!? You tell me that Ed! Penelope!”

My eyes narrowed on her, hearing these words fly out of her mouth, desperately. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the energy to feel sympathy, she needed to learn the truth of life, death, Cornello, and what he was planning. She was going to learn either way but this experience makes this lesson clearer. I gave her a hard stare. “Look, let me make this clear. No one dictates your life, I can’t just tell you what to do now, neither can Ed, or Al, or Yuki. That is up to you. You don’t need the teachings of a priest or a man to keep your feet on the ground, all you need it yourself. And it’s better to learn it in a way that’ll get it stuck in your skull than having it come in one ear and out the other.” I stated.

Unlike me, Ed kept his eyes off her, he was staring out nothing in particular when he said his words to her in a far calmer manner. “Walk on your own, move forward. You got a strong pair of legs, you should get up and use them.” He told her before walking away.

I gave her one last glance, watching her fall to her knees in what I assumed to be grief. Despite all the crap I gave her, I really hope she grows from what happened and not dwindle on it negatively. Finally, I tore my eyes away and followed behind Ed.

-

Fawn watched as I finished up my part of the story, his expression unreadable. If I was being honest, I’m not sure if he believed any of this. Hell, no one might believe me if you exclude the people I’ve met who know the truth of what happened. I huffed quietly and checked the time on a clock hanging on the wall. “Well… That’s sorta a taste of what this story will feel like. It may have been an odd place to start things, but it felt right to start up with what happened in Liore with Rose and Cornello. But we’re going to take a quick break, but first I want to explain where we’ll be starting up next. I know that a lot of you may have some questions about where I came from, who I tried to bring up, why I tried to bring that person back, et cetera. Well, I’ll be answering those questions, and I’ll start from the beginning. But I wanted to leave you with something I once heard Al say which is… Rather fitting if you ask me. But, ‘Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be given. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we thought that was the world's one and only truth.” Finishing it off, I flicked the switch, turning off the microphones, cutting off the buzzing and leaving the room in silence. Now there was no turning back.


	4. Sister

Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be given. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we thought that was the world's one and only truth.

Fawn and I ate in silence, him eating a small sandwich while I was poking at my salad with my fork. Right now, the process of retelling everything was going more smoothly than I expected but I did feel this streak of discomfort from the whole thing. As I poked around I heard Fawn quietly calling my name, motioning my attention to him. He had his sandwich set down, an eyebrow raised, inspecting me carefully. “Hey Penelope, I have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“You went on these crazy adventures, you had a wild time being a State Alchemist and you had these awesome friends, but why leave? What happened?” Fawn asked quietly.

My lips pressed together, looking aside and setting my fork down in the salad. It was a reasonable question. Only rumors floated around, there was a never a set reason for my departure, and I tried to make it as private as humanly possible. After my leave, even more rumors went around, blurring the truth. I closed the packaging. “Well, a lot happened, it was all too fast. I can’t explain it all in one sitting, and it doesn’t help that I don’t even know how to explain it.”

“So you’re stalling?”

“No.” I quickly objected before pausing. “Okay, maybe a little. But I feel that it’s best for me to start from the beginning so I have time to think it out.” Setting the food aside, I replaced the space with my headphones, holding them in my hands. Fawn lifted his head and batted his eyes before furiously pointing at his sandwich, referring to its half-eaten state. A small laugh came from my mouth as I placed the headphones back on my head. “Relax, you can eat as long as you don’t smack in the microphone.”

He sighed in relief, while he grabbed his sandwich now rolling away from the microphone. I chuckled out of the side of my mouth before turning on the microphones and bringing my voice back to the public. “Now that I’ve given everyone a taste of what’s in store, I’ll explain my background and how a girl like me ended up going into the military as a State Alchemist…”

I was born in Dublith on June 7th, 1899 to a newly wedded couple. A year after they had my sister Jamie, who was born on April 16th, 1900. When my sister was born my parents soon discovered they didn’t have the money to care for us. They made the hard decision to give us both up for adoption, not wanting to leave one child alone. They decided to do this, to give us a chance at a getting a family with financial stability or for us to wait until they could take us back when they got back on their feet. For that, I didn’t care to pursue a search for them. A couple of years passed, we weren’t adopted yet, and both Jamie and I began to form some hobbies. We would go to the libraries around town and read about anything and everything.

On this specific day, I picked up a book on anatomy and medical practices of all sorts, which didn’t take long for me to dive head first with interest. Even opening the book halfway through I still found something that I could pick up on and keep me hooked. Really the only risk of getting so caught up in these books was that Jamie could easily slip away and find herself getting into trouble. Sure, she would find herself a book but every once and awhile she would find humor in annoying the librarian, thus getting herself in trouble and I would have to get her out of it. So when I lifted my head and saw her nowhere, I felt instant exasperation. I closed the book I was reading before walking forward with my eyes darting around for Jamie. “Jamie?” I quietly called out, now stepping into walkways made from filled bookshelves. Looking around, my eyebrows knotted together. “Jamie?”

I poked my head around the corners, checking around the area with keen eyes. Yet, she wasn’t anywhere around. Before I could turn around I felt a pair of small fingers jolt into my shoulders, releasing a scream from my throat as my whole body jolted around. When I turned around, I saw Jamie with a joyous grin and began to hear her giggling in glee at the sight of me. “That wasn’t funny Jamie.” I breathed out now placing a hand on my chest in hopes to calm down my speeding heart.

“It so was!” Jamie argued. “It’s not my fault you’re a scaredy-cat!”

My lips pressed together, frowning at her tone. “Who the hell are you calling a scaredy-”

“Anyway! Look at this book I found!” She chirped now showing off a thick worn down book with the word ‘Alchemy’ inscribed in the cover.

I rose an eyebrow at the book and looked at her. “Alchemy?”

“Yeah! I already learned so much! Here, watch this!” She sang now shoving the book into my chest. I shushed her, now taking the book into my chest. Already, Jamie was on her hands and knees with a stick of pink chalk in her hand, marking a circle onto the ground. My mouth opened to scold her only to be silenced by her shushing me in return.

Shortly, she finished the array, clapping her hands with a bold smile and setting them on the drawn figure. A bright yellow light shone through the ground, almost blinding me at the very moment it appeared. My eyes scrunched into a squint as I watched carefully what was happening before me, the ground in the center of the circle sinking before some of it rose again to create a small butterfly in the ground. It was when the lights died down, I could actually perfectly see it in all its glory. “Woah!” I cried out now pulling the book away from me and opening the book to a random page. Upon opening up, I knotted my eyebrows together, staring at the pictures with a confused expression. “What’s that?” I asked pointing to a picture of a complex diagram on the page.

“A transmutation circle!” Jamie answered. “Maybe you should start from the beginning and not the middle…”

I pressed my lips together, my eyes darting to her, before looking back to the page full of things way past my knowledge. A sigh came from my lips now opening the page to the front. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Jamie giggled now wrapping her arms around my body. “You’re funny Pene!”

From that day on, Jamie and I threw ourselves head first into the world of alchemy. Checking out multiple books from the library at a time, reading and performing alchemy every chance we could, reading nothing but alchemy, we were obsessed with the art. It became a contest every once and awhile, a contest Jamie always won. Jamie was, without a doubt, better at alchemy than I was. 

Really?

Yeah, I would occasionally wonder what kinda State Alchemist she’d be. Ya know when I was one.

I mean that makes sense… So, what happened to her?

In early December Jamie was running an errand, but she slipped and cracked her head open.

Chaotic. That was the only way to describe what the Orphanage was like after Jamie was brought back. Bloodied from head to toe, dried tears on her face, flushed and red-faced, at least that’s what it was like when I saw her. Other kids crowded around the doors of the cafeteria where Jamie was taken, while I shoved and pushed my way through the crowd of kids and into the cafeteria. Some of the women of the Orphanage darted their eyes to me, wide with horror, while others kept their eyes on Jamie. “What happened?” I wailed now running forward only to be held back by the women.

“Get her out of here!”

“That’s my sister! Let me go!”

Screams of the women arguing back and forth were only drowned out by seeing my sister’s eyes shifting over to meet mine. In a flurry of panic, I shoved past the women holding me back darting to Jamie. She was in so much pain, I could tell. Her face was coated in blood, sweat, and tears, her expression was in distress, every feature brutally made itself known. “P-Pene…”

Quickly I knelt down to her level holding her stained cheeks in my hands, softly shushing her as she tried to speak. “You need to save your energy…”

Jamie looked at me, her eyes filled with bewilderment, glossy with tears. She swallowed gallons of air, her face contorted with pain as she forced more words to come out. “P-Pene… Can you t-tell me a story…?” She helplessly sputtered.

My eyes watered, filling to the brim with tears as I watched her face constantly twitching in pain, salty water from her eyes draining from her eyes. I sniffled while lowering my head for a moment. Taking a deep breath through my nose and then shakily out of my mouth. “There was a… Young girl. Who lived a happy life without a worry in the world. She had everything she could have wanted in her life. One day, everything she had was stolen from her…” I started only to have my voice grow weaker. With a pause, I swallowed a lump in my throat and wiping tears from my eyes. “The girl gluttoned for the happiness that she felt before, but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t recreate it. That despair was enough to completely stifle out any hope as she could have… And she gave up on any form of happiness. But she met people who could give her light again, parts of her life that she thought she lost forev-” Slowly I trailed off upon catching Jamie’s relaxed expression, her weakening limbs, her unblinking glassed eyes, her stiffened chest. The horror crossed my face when I realized what was happening, not wanting to believe what was happening before my very eyes. “J-Jamie… Jamie!”

Hands grabbed my shoulders, yanking me back and away from my sister. A scream in protest instinctively came out as I tried to claw my way back to my sister only to be pulled into a woman’s chest. No matter how I tried to escape, the hold around me tightened, trying to comfort my crazed and frenzied actions. Quiet coos were eased into my ears, trying to drown out the scurrying of the other women working on patching up Jamie. Working on saving her dwindling light.

Suddenly, things went silent, the only thing I could hear was the cooing of the woman holding me. I pushed my face out of her clothes, looking back to the other women. They were stiff, unmoving, staring at Jamie, not doing anything. I pushed myself away from the woman, staring at the cluster. “I-Is she okay?” The cluster of women darted their eyes to me, like a deer caught in headlights. A shudder scruffed out of my throat as I tried to walk over. “Jamie?” I forced myself to walk into the crowd, hoping to plow through to see Jamie. But the women started to hold me back.

One of the women sat in front of me, her hands set on my shoulders, a softened gaze on her features. “Penelope… I’m sorry… She’s gone…”

It all felt empty like my whole body was sucked deep into a black hole.

That’s horrible… Look, Penelope, we can stop if you feel-

No. It’s fine. I can handle this…

You sure?

Yes.

Alright…

So… Her estimated time of death was 7:13 PM on December 13th. She was buried the next day, very early, the Orphanage wanted to get the body off their hands as fast as possible, no matter what. The burial was nothing too big, they weren’t rich after all, the most Jamie got was a wooden box and men burying her in the local cemetery. But due to our clannish nature, the most I was given by the other kids was a ‘sorry for your loss’ and the women who worked there kinda babied me for a while. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for me to jump to Human Transmutation.

Things had quieted down since the men finished burying Jamie, a woman from the orphanage was waiting for me from afar. I kept my eyes on the tombstone, feeling like my eyes sunk into my skull and my body was sculpted into the ground. It was hard to say how long I was sitting here. The woman must be tired of standing in the cold, getting irritable, but I just sat numb. Cold air nipped at my skin through the jacket, sending a sharp chill down my spine as I stared lifelessly at the grave. From where I sat, I could hear the woman moving forward. “Miss Dewitt, we should head back, you’ll catch a cold.” She spoke quietly. I didn’t move an inch. “I’m sorry about your loss… Is it something you’d like to talk about?”

I wiped at my runny nose with a tiny sniffle to accompany it. “I would rather be alone right now…”

She paused upon hearing this, not sure how to respond. Her hand was set on my head, lightly playing with strays of my hair before removing her hand. “Please don’t stay out too long.” The woman whispered before stepping away from me, her footsteps fading off into nothing.

Another sniffle came from my nose, as I slowly lifted my head. From the corner of my eye, I saw the small brown bag I brought here full of Jamie’s things. Digging my hand deeper I pulled out a small leather alchemy book from inside which had flipped open to a random page. I furrowed my brows together as I inspected the page with careful eyes. In an instant, my eyes were drawn to three words, ‘reviving the dead’. Quickly, I brought the book closer trying to find where the topic began. Where would I start upon even attempting this very thing? Flipping through the book I saw the title of the section. Human Transmutation. I felt as if I was glowing, that I had been given an answer to my pressing issue. So easily it came to me.

But I saw something under those great words in bolded font, drawing my eyes to that next. Aloud, I read, “One of the biggest taboos of Alchemy, Human Transmutation is strictly forbidden.”

Forbidden. That word felt so powerful. My eyes wandered around in thought, my mind questioning me, challenging on what to do next. I was battling with my mind to either go through with this act that was bigger than myself or to follow the heading. I stared at nothing particular, biting dried skin from my chapped lips, my tired eyes tightening in determination. “To hell with forbidden.” I spat lowly now slamming the book shut.

I thought bringing my sister back to life was more important than the law, that was my biggest mistake. My determination was my greatest driving force but it was driving me to something that I wasn’t prepared for. The subject is hard, I ended up studying the topic for years, working on formulas, finding out measurements for what elements I needed. I studied in anything I felt like I needed to know in order to make this transmutation successful. Anatomy, biology, medical alchemy, you name it. I probably studied it. It was what would’ve been her tenth birthday when I attempted it.

The sun had gone down and it was late enough for everyone to be asleep when I started to prepare for the transmutation circle. Gathering the materials of the transmutation was a process that took months, from getting money to spending it, a cycle she repeated. As quietly as I could I dragged a metal tub into my room, setting it in the corner of my room to start off. Taking a stick of chalk, I began to draw onto the ground, a large array that was going to carry out the deed, working slowly but carefully. Next, I moved the tub into the center of the circle and went back to fix any abrasions made to the transmutation circle. 

Moving to the bed, I tore open the bags of elements and started to put the respected measurements in the tub while uttering the elements under my breath. “Water, Carbon, Ammonia, Lime, Phosphorus, Salt, Saltpeter, Sulfur, Fluorine, Iron, Silicon…”  
It was then when I realized how close I was to the goal. Jamie’s life was practically standing right in front of me, motioning me to the front of the circle. Quietly, I stepped to the front and stopped so that I faced the circle. Now I couldn’t turn back. I knelt down to the ground, clapping my hands together and forcibly slapped them onto the surface of the circle. At the touch of the circle, the room filled with a bright yellow light. My eyes squinted, watching through my eyelids so I could adjust to the blaring color. Excitement filled my bones as I opened my eyes up, watching the lights with my eyes glowing even more.

And the sad thing? I actually thought I’d do it. Alchemists before me couldn’t do it, so how could I?

Those yellow lights convinced me that I was doing things right, that everything was working out in the transmutation. But, the lights from the transmutation circle soon went from yellow to dark purple, darkening the room with its presence. A sharp shiver sliced down my spine, the thrill instantly died down. I removed my hands from the circle and pushed myself to my feet, watching this scene unfolding before me. Out of nowhere, a bright stinging force dug into my cranium, shoving deep within with crackling filling my ears as I cried out in fright.

Acting in desperation, I tried to cover the top of my head to protect myself from the burning rebound, but it would only do me so much good. More hands moved towards me, I stumbled backward away from the hands only to crumble to the ground. I rested my forehead on the ground, continuing to cover my head. Still those things found their way past my flesh like parasites. Trembling, I squeezed my eyes shut, letting out a dragging scream. The sounds of sparks faded away leaving immense discomfort in my brain where I felt the tingling sparks dig into my innards. For a moment, I felt my vision snap into darkness, blacking out shortly.

When the world around me came crashing back, I heard weak grumbles rising. Quickly I shot my head up to see nothing rising from the smoke from the transmutation. “J-Jamie? Is that you…?” I sputtered now moving closer to the center of the circle, despite through the pain I felt some form of hope. That feeling that something tonight went right. Even though it was a violent rebound I was able to bring my sister back. But the closer I got the more I saw of what I made. A beast that couldn’t even be called human. Rotten skin that clung too close to the weak bones, beady red eyes, patches of black hair that refused to attach, and a decaying mouth which released those ghastly groans.

My body freezing in horror was what stopped any movement I could have made.

Suddenly the door behind me burst open as women from the Orphanage broke into my room careless to what was inside. I didn’t even bother to look at their expression. The gasps said enough. Footsteps flooded the room as hands began to pull at my shoulders, pulling me away from the grisly sight. Without even thinking I thrashed about, throwing my arms away from the women screaming for them to not touch me. A woman went on her knees now forcibly grabbing my arms so they were exposed stiffly in front of me. Giving me a full view of blood covering my palms. My eyes couldn’t leave the sight of the blood on me. That amount of blood was out of my body. “M-My head…” I sputtered weakly as everything began to close in. Everything was swallowing me like a pill as I remained motionless staring at the blood. I stared even when the dots filled my vision. Blood was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.

So… You lost parts of your brain?

Yeah.

H-How did it feel…?

Well, the initial shock took me out of it for a while, I didn’t feel much. But when it began to wear off I felt everything. Not only was it physically painful, but it was tiring, physically, emotionally, mentally.

Could you feel the holes in your brain?

Well, that’s difficult to answer outright… It felt weird for a couple days but I got used to how weird it was. You get stuck with it for so long you kinda don’t feel it that much anymore. So... I was taken to the hospital in Dublith, got my wounds patched up, and they told me the news. That I had holes in various spots of my brain, I would be put on medication for it, and that since they couldn’t exactly do anything else that I was expected to die soon. If it wasn’t from the shock, I would have reacted, broke into tears, reacted like you would expect. Instead, I just sat there, unresponsive. I didn’t actually speak to anyone until I had outside visitors. Yuki and her father, Roy Mustang.

I wasn’t exactly sure how long I stared at the cream white sheets of the hospital bed, given the messes I’ve been in I’m surprised I haven’t been moved so that I look at something else. Every ounce of my body felt stiff like frozen water. But everything else felt like the polar opposite, those emotions and thoughts kept berating me, slapping me into submission too often. It was numbing. So much that I wouldn’t even lift my head when someone came in, but it was always the same people. Doctors, nurses, head of the orphanage, running around in my room in this dragging cycle.

On the third or fourth day, over the mental shackles wrapped around my body, I heard a new voice under the defensive yelling of the head of the orphanage. Clumsily, it came to a halt when the door opened and footsteps rang in my ears. A pause rang out until the new deep voice of a man slipped out. “So, you’re Penelope Dewitt.” He started but stopped, as if he was waiting for a response. Soon he figured that he wouldn’t be getting one and spoke again. “The name’s Roy Mustang.” He waited again.

“She hasn’t talked, not since the incident.” The head of the orphanage bitterly said.  “The only time she moves is when someone tries to touch her. I don’t know how you learned about her but she’s just a child. A lonely, sad child in mourning. What the hell will you gain by arresting her or executing her?”

“I have no intentions of arresting her or having her executed. What condition is she in?”

She huffed lowly. “Sir, if we’re going to talk about that we should do it outside.”

I rose my head slightly at this, not like she or anyone else notice. The man in the room was tall with black hair with a pair of dark eyes to boot. Clinging to his jacket was a girl who was tinier than I was, with hair matching the man she clung to with cocoa brown eyes. 

“This girl has heard that more than enoug-”

“If you must know, I have holes in my brain and doctors are scrambling to figure out when I die.” I spat lowly, now giving the woman a sour glare. “You can’t shelter me with that.”

Once again, she puffed out a ton of air and shot daggers at Roy. “Well, if you have no intentions on arresting her, why are you here?” She asked.

Roy stole a glance at me, giving me a curious eye. That was the only thing I could read from that look, anything else was nothing but a mystery. He rose his arms and crossed them over his chest and answered, “I want to offer her to come to Central and train to be a State Alchemist. For a child, her age to perform a transmutation such as that is no easy feat and it’s impressive to say the very least.”

“She was lucky she didn’t die, and I’ll stop you right there and decline that offer. Just because you think she’s talented enough to perform something that nearly killed her doesn’t mean she should join the military. She’s just a child! Besides, I can’t legally let her run free to do whatever she wants.”

“I’ll take her off your hands then.”

Both the head of the orphanage and I were taken aback by the simplistic comment. It was like he didn’t even have to think about it. That sentence was a slap in the face to us. Swallowing firmly, I raised my head more, gaining some bravery. “Tell me, what would you gain by having a child like me working as a State Alchemist?”

His attention shifted to me, his gaze changing entirely. Just by looking at me, he knew that I was testing him, which was when there was a blazing determination in those obsidian eyes. Walking to the closest chair he took a seat and watched me just as closely as I watched him. “Your alchemical skills could greatly benefit our research into multiple studies, that is dependent on how you wish to use your alchemy. But with your skill, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Well, sir, I just committed a crime, and I’m assuming reviving the dead is punishable by death, so why would I throw myself in the lion’s den? How do I know that you aren’t luring me out?”

“Do you really think I would purposefully get you killed while giving my daughter the chance to get close to you? As far as your secret goes, I suggest you keep it in the dark and in turn, I’ll keep it hidden as well.”

Our eyes locked together, clashing instantaneously. But I wasn’t sure what overwhelmed me about it. The intensity or the unwavering hardness of it. All the while I tried to maneuver my mind to catch any other faulty parts of his plans or expose any alternative motives with wit. Watching this the woman stared now taking a step forward. “Penelope, you aren’t actually considering doing this, are you?” She asked, fumbling around with her words.

“There’s nothing to consider anymore,” I stated, not even bothering to break the eye lock. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m taking your offer.”

You know for a traumatized kid who just lost parts of her brain, you were pretty clever.

I suppose so. I can’t give myself a break when it comes to snark. So, I was whisked away by the Mustangs to where Roy was stationed with his daughter. It took around a day to actually arrive and that day was… Something. The trip was tiring and that’s putting it lightly. Just getting out the of the hospital and still mourning were major factors in that. But it also didn’t help that my body was accustomed to my dilemma. Migraines were common, sometimes they would escalate.

Riding a train and watching the outside zipping by was fascinating when I was riding for the first time. Seamlessly, things passed me by only reminding me how wide the world was. Yet here I was, stuffed into the cramped train cart with large windows, teasing me with something more open. I stared out, my heart pounding in my throat even when I didn’t know why. As I locked my eyes at the glass separating us from the outside I heard Roy clear his throat. “Penelope, you’ve been tapping your feet for quite some time now. Is something wrong?” He asked in a hard tone.

I blinked, now looking at my feet before shifting my attention back to Roy. “I… I didn’t know I was doing that. I guess I’m a little nervous.”

“It’s okay for you to walk around you know? There’s no one else on the cart.”

Tearing my eyes away from him, I set my knees where I was sitting and inspected the emptied booths from where I remained. Yuki giggled a little at my expression. “It’s okay. It’s good to walk around.” She assured now slipping herself off the seat. “Come on.”

I watched her before mimicking her actions and following her into the alley. There was something strangely eerie about no one else being on the train cart. But before I could dwell on those thoughts any further Yuki brought my attention back to her. “So, you’re trying to become a State Alchemist?”

“I guess…”

“Oh, so what kinda of alchemy do you do?” Yuki asked now bringing her hands into excited fists in front of her chest.  
My cheeks went red at that question alone. Quickly, I avoided her eyes and rubbed the back of my neck almost bashfully. “W-

Well I dunno… I haven’t actually done any alchemy since…”

She didn’t even allow for me to finish my sentence as her expression dropped. “I-I… I’m sorry I didn’t realize-”

“No, it’s okay, really,” I assured. “I need to be able to use Alchemy to be a State Alchemist, it’d be impossible to do my job otherwise…” Looking to Yuki, she barely relaxed, still a little tense in her shoulders. A smile rose on my face. “Well, I suppose I should give it some thought.”

Yuki kept her eyes on me, a smile creeping onto her face. “I have… I have a type of alchemy I’m looking into. One with volume.”

“Volume?”

“Ya know, like soundwaves?” Slowly, I nodded, my mind still drawing a hard blank. Alchemy with volume? Soundwaves? The idea of mixing the two together sounded so foreign. This girl must be a super genius or something in order to figure everything out. “I mean, I’m still figuring out the details but-”

“I-I’m sure you could figure it out,” I assured in a voice that came out more awkward than I intended.

“You wanna help?”

“With all due respect, I think it’d be better to leave that to you. You’re more informed on that kinda stuff than I am.” Mumbling this, I shot her a shy look. It didn’t take long then for alchemy to reinvade my thoughts, even when I agreed to try to become a State Alchemist I can admit I didn’t think of alchemy as much as I should have. But here it is, returning in full force. “How did you… How did you think of it? Sound and alchemy?”

Yuki turned to me. “Well, I… I just kinda came into my mind, executing it is the real challenge. But what kinda stuff do you study with alchemy?”

I looked aside. “Anatomy… Medical stuff… But if I’m doing this, I want to do something new. Gotta make things interesting…”

“When would you try the test?”

“When I know I’ll be ready…”

-

Risembool was quieter than what I was used to, the bustling of Central or East City never felt like home but I was used to it somehow. On my left, the Rockbell sisters worked and tweaked at their most recent automail experiment; while on my right, Joslyn Elric surfed radio channels with her bored frown dragging her face down. I only continued to read up on the most advanced alchemy I could grab, hoping I could get something out of this book. The dominant static continued to buzz through the room until Joslyn slid past something that caught her ears. A gasp echoed out of her mouth as she backtracked and went to make the sound clearer.

Past the buzz, a voice of a young boy rang out from the radio. I rose my head along with Winry and Wynter. “Jos?” Wynter quietly mumbled.

“Did you find something?” I asked, closing the book.

“I heard her…” Joslyn replied almost silently. “I heard Penelope.”

My eyes widen and shifted to her. “Y-You’re sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

Winry stopped on her work for once and stared. That was until Penelope’s voice escaped from the speakers and her expression shifted entirely.

“-the trip was tiring, and that’s putting it lightly. Just getting out the of the hospital and still mourning were major factors in that.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the radio, those saucer-wide eyes couldn’t budge even if I tried to move them away. Relief washed over me gradually as my body relaxed. “She’s okay…” Feeling overcome with that sense of great hope.

Beside me, Winry physically relaxed as well, forcing her eyes away from the radio. “She sounds so different…”

Looking at her, my gaze softened in familiarity with an accompanying nod. Her attention was now fully on the radio and the voice coming out. That heavy voice that held something new since I had last heard her. It was foreign on her. My eyebrows knotted together and I leaned forward. “What’re you planning Pene…?” I asked only to myself.

-

So, Roy, he adopted you?

Sort of? He got me out of the Orphanage but as far as parenting goes, even when I was out I never had a true parent or guardian. I had figures.

Sounds difficult. Who did you turn to then?

Friends, those figures, sometimes I could only turn to myself. That’s how it was with the path I picked. But my first choice was always Yuki, I was drawn to her. She was like my sister and when I needed help, she was there much like how I was with her…  
It seems like that’s what you needed.

What I needed was people by my side, that’s what I got. Well, Roy was busy with work and he didn’t want to complicate things, so he decided to send me to an Alchemist in town who had just become a State Alchemist. His name was Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist.

Both Roy and Yuki didn’t speak about Tucker much on the train ride nor on this car ride, either out of secrecy or lack of information which I didn’t get bothered too much by. All I really knew was his title and of his family. A daughter, a dog, and a wife. The feeling of having people waiting to take you into their home was strange. For years my sister and I would talk about what it would be like, but we never mentioned a pit in my stomach. We thought it would just be giddy excitement, but there’s fear here.

“I’m sure he’s nice…” Yuki mumbled quietly next to me.

I turned my head to her. “O-Oh, I’m sure he is too! It just feels really weird...” Slowly I turned to Roy who just watched out the window with his arms crossed over his chest. My brow rose. “So, Mr.Mustang. I don’t think you ever explained what I needed to do to be a State Alchemist, at least not in detail…”

Roy finally broke his attention on the outside of the car and turned back to me. But only for a moment, as he shifted from Yuki and then to me. “Well, I assumed Yuki would have given you details but you will have several portions of the test. A written portion, a physical, an interview, and a practical test in which you could turn in your research or perform on the spot. Tucker has a large collection of books that can help you prepare.” He explained. “Yuki already goes for her preparations.”

“Wait. What?” I helplessly asked now turning to Yuki who just diffidently looked away from me. “You’re going in as a State Alchemist too?”

“Y-Yeah… But you need to be able to convince the higher-ups to let you take it, and I haven’t figured out how yet...” Yuki stated not even looking back at me.

“You two can leave that to me, just do a big enough favor for me.”

That smirk just gave me a sharp shiver of annoyance as my mind only began to wonder what he would have me do. Probably clean a file off his desk for him. A frown came to both Yuki and I, while I added on a slimy stare. “So you mean like Equivalent Exchange?”

“Exactly,” Roy answered, leaning forward with a sly grin.

“Hm… Suppose without that, whatever research I pursue would be pointless. Very well, Mustang, I’ll do your favor.”

Mustang seems like the type to help people if they can benefit him somehow…

Nothing gets past you, does it?

I guess not?

Well, you’re not wrong. Mustang had ulterior motives left and right, at least when I worked. He saw a purpose for me, so he brought me to Central at the Tucker estate.

What was your purpose?

Cleaning files off his desk, furthering his career, catching criminals, take your pick. I ended up doing a lot of his dirty work while I was a State Alchemist. Whatever I did, I ended up making his job easier. He benefited, it got me a job, kept me busy, paid the medical bills, so I never argued. I didn’t want to argue over what was helping me.

I suppose in your situation you didn’t have much of a choice.

I had a choice, I just chose to not complain. Now, the Tucker family included Shou, respectfully, a younger daughter named Nina and mother who recently ran out. All I was told was that she didn’t like their poor lifestyle and with that, she left. The day after Shou became a State Alchemist with a Chimera.

There wasn’t much to go on with the Tucker family, they were like an enigma, it only drove my nervousness up tenfolds. Slowly the car pulled forward, jerking to a stop and I finally caught sight of the house before me. A white two-story house shaped like a giant cube with a large lawn that was mostly covered by a decently sized stone fence. Despite everything this was the largest house, I’d ever seen. Roy straightened himself out and opened up the door to the car and letting Yuki and I out.

Somehow, the house seemed larger outside than it was in the car. Towering over me in its boldness. “This is where you’ll be staying Penelope, don’t worry, Tucker is already aware of you staying. There’s another kid in the house, so be nice. Tucker’s wife left recently so don’t mention it.” Roy warned as he began to lead both Yuki and I to the door. But the closer we got the more intimidated I became by the house. Swallowing nervously, Roy stepped to the door, ringing the doorbell. “And Yuki, I’d like you to watch over Penelope. It might benefit you both to stay together.”

Both Yuki and I exchanged glances, throwing eyebrows up in the air. As if he needed to tell us to stay together. Slowly the door opened, barely at first but then moving wide enough to see the man behind. A tall one, thin, pale, with brown hair and blue eyes that was heightened by tiny glasses. “Lieutenant Colonel Mustang, hello.” He greeted, his voice naturally faint. His eyes moved over to Yuki and I, his gaze shifting in curiosity. “And which one is…?”

Roy motioned to me. “This is Penelope.”

“Ah yes,” Tucker responded pushing his glasses further on his nose before lowering himself to my level. “Hello Penelope, my name is Shou Tucker. I’ll be watching over you from now on.”

Instinctively, I shifted my eyes to Roy and Yuki before looking back to Tucker. “H-Hello Mr.Tucker.”

“And from what I’ve been told, you want to become a State Alchemist.”

“Yes, sir…”

Tucker kept his eyes on me, about to speak but was stopped by a little girl’s voice from inside the house calling for him. He lifted his head and looked over his shoulder. Meanwhile I tilted my head to the side to get a better look at who was inside. A tiny child with long brown hair in pigtails that complimented her large blue eyes that peered into Shou. “Daddy, who’s at the door?”

“Ah, Nina!” Tucker gasped out now motioning for her to come closer. With her feet pattering against the wooden floor, the child walked to Tucker who slid her into his lap. “Nina, this Penelope Dewitt, she’ll be staying with us for a while so I want you to welcome her.”

“Really?” Nina gasped out.

He nodded before turning to me. “Penelope, this is my daughter Nina.”

A kind smile graced my lips as I waved to her. “Hiya!”

“Hi! Are you gonna be my Big Sister now?”

I could feel my face crumble slightly at the question, feeling a familiar weight on my shoulders, holding me down in the very spot. Those two words rang in my head like bells on a church. Despite that, Nina kept her eyes on me, watching me for a response. When I caught that simplest fact I forced myself to raise a carefree smile and nodded. “Absolutely! I’m your big sister now! And so is my friend Yuki here!” I replied without even thinking.

Beside me, Yuki batted her eyes furiously, blushing a light pink. “Y-Yeah! Yeah, we’re gonna be the best sisters!” Yuki responded, taken aback by my comment.

“Woo-hoo!” The little girl exclaimed now jumping out of Tucker’s hold only to transfer her weight into my arms. Jumping into my hold and almost sending me staggering backward. My eyes widen now looking at the top of Nina’s head as she merely kept her hold on me. “Big Sister Pene and Yuki!” She cheered before departing to hug Yuki who returned the hug faster than I could. All the while, I stared at Nina, feeling almost lost. Remaining stationary in a stormy sea, feeling the excitement, terror, occur around me, but all the while I could barely force myself to let out a rational response.

I just watched, feeling as if Nina and Yuki hugged in slow motion. The two of them. Sisters.

-

Time had flown past the two of us, lunch soon shifted into dinner and here I was, just finishing this story for people outside of Fawn and I to hear. Lifting my head I saw the time had gone from 2:30 to 6:30. A fact that Fawn seemed to catch wind of as well. The minute he caught the time, he quickly shot to his feet. “W-Woah! Um, hey before you get ahead of yourself I actually need to get home soon! My mom doesn’t want me to stay out super late unless I have her permission.” He said, mumbling the last bit to himself.

A kind smile rose on my face now shaking my head. “Nah, it’s okay. You get ready to head out, I’ll finish things off for tonight, assuming you want to hear everything.”

“You know me so well…”

Nodding with an accompanying laugh, I brushed a strand of hair out of my face. That action cued for Fawn to turn off his microphone and quickly move to collect his things. “Well, I guess I’m cutting things off early tonight... But tomorrow I’ll tell the story of how I met the Elrics. Ed, Al, and Joslyn. How Ed came to join the military one year after Yuki and I joined…” I explained, my voice keeping quiet. Already feeling the story begin to tax on me. Swallowing nervously, I rose a gleeful smile only to say, “This is Penelope Dewitt, signing off!”

With that, it was the end. Turning off the microphone only ended today. Flicking that mic off forced a breath I didn’t realize I was holding out of my chest which only amplified the anxiety trying to claw up my throat that would rear its ugly head either tonight or later on. Fawn turned his gaze to me, raising an eyebrow. “Hey, you gonna be okay? You seem really tired.”  
I lifted my head and nodded, a lie. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I just need sleep. But I need you to stay longer, especially so I can cover more throughout the day.”

“Understood…” Fawn firmly answered now grabbing his belongings. “Anyway, see ya tomorrow, Penelope!”

“It’s Pene…!”

As the silence settled in the tiny lone studio, I finally fueled the closing wall which in turn only powered up my riling anxiety attack. Shuddering to myself, I hunched myself over the desk, not even able to feel any strong support, not even the table felt firm enough to keep me up. I felt like I was sucking on mouthfuls of air in one after another as I slowly lowered myself to the table, resting my head on the desk. “I… I can’t do this…” I whimpered quietly, squeezing my eyes shut. “I can’t do this… I can’t do it…”


	5. The Man with The Mechanical Arm

Humankind cannot gain without first giving something in return. To obtain something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we thought that was the world's one and only truth. 

A spacious ballroom that seemed to be made out of gold that seemed to shine with the lights beating down on it. Even with the room’s purpose, it was strangely quiet. There was no music playing. No one around. Just an eerie silence. A tight, cream white corset accessorized with accents of blue, looped around my waist, restricting my breathing. Without a doubt, the dress was beautiful, but it was a minor detail at this point. Looking around I had truly confirmed that it was only me. “Hello? Is anyone here?” I called, my shoes clacking against the ground as I moved. “Hey! Hello!?”

Suddenly behind me, a low animalistic growl echoed throughout the room. My body went tense. Slowly, I turned over my shoulder and saw a tattered dog with brown and black fur coating it’s body. It’s yellow tinted teeth were bare, drool dripping down it’s jowls and its tongue occasionally sliding over it’s teeth. I swallowed, cautiously taking several steps away from the dog. In return, the dog took a sauntering step closer to me.

“Easy there… Easy…” I cooed quietly while instinctively raising my hands.

_ “We’ll meet again Penelope… That’s a promise…” _

My face shifted as I raised my head upwards. “W-What…?”

Snapping my attention back, I heard the dog bark and charge to where I stood. I began to stagger back, my eyes widening as the dog launched itself into the air, it’s fangs fast approaching my throat ready to close in around my flesh-

-

Immediately, I jolted up gasping for air as my eyes shot open. The generously sized ballroom had shifted into a small bedroom for an even smaller apartment, darkened by the windows holding night. With my heavy breathing, my cold, sweaty shirt clung to my clammy body sending shivers that even dug deeper into my skin. A hand reached up to my neck, rubbing the sides tenderly even while it tightened to suck oxygen through my nostrils. Letting out a shivering breath, I lowered my head. “When…?”

-

After Penelope went off the air, Yuki disappeared into her room, not speaking a word to any of us. She held this determined look on her face but no matter how much we asked about her intentions, she never answered. Both the sisters decided to keep the radio on for when Penelope came back tomorrow, while I willingly stood by them. 

Since then, both Winry and Wynter had kept talking, trying to wrap their heads around what she was doing. None of us could figure it out. Over the air, Penelope sounded so… Off. At least compared to how she would talk around Al, or Yuki, or even Ed at her worst. Well, what I assumed to be her worst. I thought getting closer to death was her at her worse. But regaining her life sent her down an endless spiral. “What do you think Jos?” Wynter asked.

My head rose and I looked towards them. “What?”

“Do you think Penelope would have been okay if things didn’t go wrong?” Winry repeated. “Ya know, between all of us?”

Looking aside, I rubbed the back of my neck and pressing my lips into a thin line. Slowly I drew out a breath. “No. I don’t, but I don’t think she left because of anything that happened between you guys and her. There has to be another reason. We just have to be with her in whatever way we can.”

“It’s just…” Wynter started, only to trail off quietly. “I just wish she hadn’t have left the way she did.”

“Yeah… I wish she hadn’t too.” Looking to them, I saw their dejected gazes full of thought. I pressed my lips together and leaned back in my chair. “You know, I always kinda wished that Ed and Al never left the way they did. Burning the house down, leaving immediately afterwards. But I think it was because I didn’t feel ready to let my brothers wander into danger, and we definitely got into danger. Even before joining the military, we could have been killed.”

“Really?” Winry gasped.

“How so?”

Shifting in my seat, I turned to the two of them, their eyes meeting mine. I drew a breath in and rested my elbows on the table with a palm holding my chin.

At the time we were preparing for the last train to Central and the moment we arrived at the station Ed called Mustang to inform him that we were on the way. Our original plan was to wait for a more convenient time, but Roy had other plans.

The train station was small, the station having a single train in the station with a lone bread kiosk on the side. Both Al and I kept our focus on the bread kiosk, working together to pick out only the best loaves of bread for the road. Al would point a loaf he liked out to me in which I would inspect it carefully only to end up taking the scent in. Taking a loaf in my hand and smiled in delight as the smell lingered. “Mmmm… That smells nice…” I quietly mumbled to myself.

-

To the side, stood Edward Elric, dialing Roy’s number with a calm expression hiding the restlessness. Quietly, he listening to the ringing of the phone, waiting for the voice on the other line to come forward. Abruptly, the ringing ended and on the other line, came Roy’s voice, greeting with a bored tone, “This is Mustang.”

“A-Ah, yes, hello!” Ed started, his voice stumbling. “U-Uh, Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang? This is Edward Elric reporting into the station.”

Roy chuckled at the side of his mouth, with an ever-growing smirk. “Easy kid. Don’t be uptight, ya know, it sounds like you've been rehearsing this or somethin’.” He teased.

If it was even possible, Ed tensed up even more. His body went as stiff as a board with his eyes growing wide. Through the slight embarrassment, he spoke. “I-I'm sorry- Sir- I mean Roy- I mean…” Ed helplessly stuttered. “We're boarding the 9:20 train for Central.”

Once again, Roy couldn’t help but laugh a little even as he turned his attention to the file before him. “Roger that.” He replied. That was when a certain detail caught his eye, one within the file, which only hatched a small plan. A sort of, test. “Wait a minute, there's one leaving before that, isn’t there?”

Ed batted his eyes while as if on cue, the train began to whistle and signal it’s departure. “Yeah, but we had a little detour. We got here late, I think it’s already leaving.”

“Get on it.”

“B-But why does it matter?”

“Take it or go home!” Roy suddenly exclaimed before hanging up, not even giving Ed a chance to respond back or argue.

-

Behind me, the train whistled signaling the final call for it’s departure, like that would do anyone any good. At this point, it was already speeding ahead. Close to the side, I heard hard footsteps pattering in the direction of the train, which was followed by Ed yelling, “Al! Joslyn! Boarding time!”

“Now?!” Al and I both inquired, firing our heads back and forth between Ed and the woman running the kiosk.

“Change of plans! Come on!”

Al ran for Ed while holding a paper bag full of bread, I, on the other hand, quickly paid for the food before chasing after my brothers in a flurry. Even throwing a flustered wave at the woman as we raced to jump onto the train that was already moving in its path to Central.

-

Meanwhile, Roy’s hand rested on the telephone that he slammed down while a grin that strangely fit his face after that small outburst played his face. The Lieutenant Colonel leaned against the chair with one leg resting on top of the other and his dark eyes never once leaving the phone, not even to look at his daughter or his prized subordinate, Riza Hawkeye. “Let’s test their luck,” Roy muttered to himself, with dastardly smirk rising.

Both Riza and Yuki’s brown eyes darted to Roy, curiously, but instead received no response to what his intentions were.

We managed to get on the train fairly easily given our circumstances, found a seat, got checked onto the train, had our bread intact, so it was pretty alright. At the time we weren’t aware of the extra guests we had on the train. We had Vato Falman, General Hakuro, and Hughes. Now, Roy had never specified why he wanted us to jump on the early train, so we didn’t exactly know what to expect at first. For the most part, things were fairly calm.

Even with a packed cart, people kept to themselves, quietly chatting with themselves or sitting in silence. The most dominant sound was that of the whistling of the train. However, it’s not like my brothers or I made it any louder. Beside me, Ed chewed at his bread with an indifferent expression latched onto his features while Al watched him from the other side of the booth. To me, the silence was filled with this odd awkwardness. Taking a deep breath, I turned to the boys with a small smile. “So, I don’t think I can get a real solid opinion on this Mustang guy. I mean… He seems… Okay?” I started with a pause following afterwards. “I dunno, but what do you think he’s like?”

Al shifted, but it wasn’t for my failure to start a conversation. I had a sneaking suspicion it was over something else. Ed and I rose our heads, now turning over our shoulders just to barely catch a little girl hiding behind her seat with her mother who just kept to herself. When I turned back to face Al, he had already lowered his gaze with a distress floating around him. “Brother... Sister... Am I scary?”

“No?”

“Please, you’re kindness in a can,” Ed answered.

“Look, mom… He’s strange.” The girl behind us whispered to her mother.

“Strange?” Al gasped.

“Al-”

“That’s not nice sweetie, you shouldn’t say things like that…” The mother sighed.

“But look at him... He must like armor a lot to wear it everywhere. Even on a train! Do you think it gets hot?”

I pressed my lips into a thin line now leaning forward to try and get my eyes to meet with Al’s lowered attention. “Hey, Al. Look at me…” I whispered just loud enough for him to hear. Slowly, he rose his head, now fixating on me. “I wouldn’t take that too harshly. She’s a little girl, remember when I was really scared of spi-”

“There's nothing to see here, folks! Nothing out of the ordinary!” Ed loudly yelled to everyone on the train while lowering himself down to sit once more. “Jeez Al, no one told em we had tickets to the normal seat express.”

My face grew hot with embarrassment and if Al had a body, I’m sure he would get bright red at Ed’s actions. The minute Ed situated himself, I fired a nasty stare at him. “Well, if people weren’t paying attention to us then, they definitely are now,” I muttered lowly.

Quite suddenly, I heard the same girl giggling to herself, which shifted my attention to over my shoulder to see the girl waving at Al boldly with an ear to ear smile. A sentiment which brought a smile to my own face. Next to me, Ed smiled and turned to the girl. “There, see Al! She's not scared! She likes you! Right?” The girl nodded and then brought her attention to Ed’s exposed automail right arm. Ed followed her eyes, taken aback by her interest, but quickly recovered to show it off more with a wide grin. “Cooler than skin, huh?”

The girl nodded eagerly. Shortly after the mother raised a smile and turned to the girl. “Alright Mary, you've bothered them enough.” She told her daughter while shooting us a smile.

Ed and I raised a smile in addition to Al’s kind eyes that was directed at the two.

Based on what Ed and Al told me, there was a very similar interaction and I’m sure you’ll hear more from Penelope’s side or even Yuki’s. It’s more common when Ed became a State Alchemist though.

You said you guys had dangerous interactions before Ed became a State Alchemist, so what happened on the train?

Well, good question there Win, you see Mustang is a very interesting and left out very fine details when telling Ed to get on the train. One of which was that General Hakuro was on the train with his family.

-

In a separate but nicer cart with a private booth for the General’s family, already his two children slept in his wife’s arms. Holding them close all while holding a tender smile with an equally tender gaze. Beside Hakuro was a military soldier who dressed the part in a blue uniform. Hakuro smiled at his kids, not even moving from his hunched-over position. “Guess they had their fill of adventure for now.” He said softly, keeping his eyes on his family.

“General.” The soldier started, now shifting Hakuro’s attention away. “It’s great you could make this trip and bring your family along, without incident.”

“Yes, the bureaucrats say the East is unstable, gives them an excuse not to travel.” He replied before sharing a laugh with the man.

Outside those doors stood two soldiers in normal wear, one of them being Warrant Officer Vato Falman, a tall man with the top of his head covered white hair which was accompanied by thin black hair that clung to the sides of his head. He stood by the door with his arms crossed over his chest with a firm look on his face. “The higher-ups sure do take it easy, makes you think we’re on a pleasure line,” Falman muttered mostly to himself. “Speaking of, where’s Hughes? I don’t like him being out of sight.”

“Sir, he’s at the switchboard talking to Lieutenant Colonel Mustang about possible gaps.”

Falman shifted slightly. “Better be vital…”

“Sir?”

“I don’t like him tying up the lines.”

Sitting near the switchboard was Major Maes Hughes, relaxed and lounging, he was leaning in his chair with his feet propped up with an ear to ear grin plastered on his face. The man was known for obsessively gushing about his now pregnant wife when he had the free time either in person or over the phone. At the point, he had been on the phone with Roy Mustang for quite some time, with a slight blush on his cheeks from either the topic of his wife or for speaking for long periods without catching a breath. “I’m telling you Roy, it’s a trip! Ever since she got pregnant she’s turned hotter than a love goddess! It’s the miracle of hormones! It’s like this angel flew down from heaven and kissed her on the-!”

On the other end, Roy never gave Hughes the chance to finish that statement. Clearly annoyed, he slammed the phone down on it’s rest, bringing Yuki and Riza’s attention back to him.

Hughes groaned and pushed back to the switchboard, using his feet to push against the door, while Falman watched from the window. “Lousy phones! Cutting off my conversations. I can’t do anything here!” He whined now standing again.

“You’re the one we can’t do anything with!” Falman argued from the other side. “Now how do they expect me to run a tight security with a family of four… And a lovebird?”

Shortly, Hughes got ahold of Roy again, keeping that bold grin on his face with a light blush on his cheeks. Moving in the chair, he turned so that he faced the door and spoke with an almost doofy voice. “So, how am I gonna handle it if she has the baby tomorrow? I mean emotionally?” He asked in an excited voice.

Roy tapped his fingers on the desk, knotting his eyebrows together in an irritated matter, one of them even twitching. “Hughes, you’ve told me about this fifty times already. If you’re really having problems containing yourself, take it up with your wife.” He suggested in a growl.

“I already have Roy! I talked with her this morning!”

“Then stop bothering me!”

Behind Roy, Riza reached for the other phone, just inviting herself into the conversation with a firm voice. “I’m sorry to interrupt you Major, but allow me to offer a bit of feminine advice: babies aren’t born after five months!”

“Ah, sorry, I lost you,” Hughes replied. He rose an eyebrow pulling the phone away from his ear, giving it a puzzled look. “Geez, she actually believes we’re talking seriously here?”

-

Back in the regular train carts, things had become quiet after the little girl’s interaction with Ed, Al, and I. Ed was laid across the seat, snoozing while Al watched everything go by in a flash as the train moved. Something I would do only occasionally was look around to some other person or a specific piece of luggage. At a certain moment, it was a man with white and black hair wearing a brown suit stepping in with his eyes sweeping the area and tensing up when looking at our side of the cart. I watched him, unsure if he had actually noticed me staring as he mumbled something quietly to himself.

-

Still on the phone, Hughes and Roy got onto another topic. Leaning forward, Roy spoke, “Okay, that’ll do it Hughes. I just got information from intel we’re not being tapped. How does the train look? Are there any suspicious ‘o’s or ‘p’s?”

“No. No persons or objects, in view anyway.” Hughes answered. “But I’ve got a bad feeling about this. There’s been more boarding and unboarding th-” He was suddenly cut off by another ringing telephone that stole his focus. Shifting his expression, Hughes picked up the phone, now holding on in each hand. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“There’s someone here!” Falman started.

Hughes leaned forward. “Tell me.”

“A man on the train, he looks like he’s ready for a full assault!”

“Have you found any weapons?”

“No, he’s in a large suit of armor!”

Hughes batted his eyes together in confusion. “Wha…? Armor?”

From the other line, Roy chuckled catching Hughes’ attention instantly shot a baffled stare at the first phone. Unlike Hughes, Roy grinned slightly, taking amusement in the first reaction to this new information. “That guy's okay. And there should be two other kids with him. Sort of pipsqueaks.”

-

The guy was gone from the train for a long while, giving me enough time to stare off into space while staring at a luggage. I thought of nothing really in particular, just staring at it. Once again, however, the door opened and the same man from earlier came running in, but moving to our booth. I cocked an eyebrow upwards and Al shifted to look at him, letting out a soft hum. Without pausing, he openly said, “He’s right! There are two other people here! And he is small.”

“Um. Sir-”

Like he wasn’t sleeping this whole time, Ed fired up now angrily standing now flailing his arms and legs about, scaring this man. To add on to the flailing of his arms and legs, he screamed at the man, “Who are you calling a runt so tiny that he can only be seen with a magnifying glass you jerk!”

The man staggered back while raising his hands defensively. “Relax kid…! The Colonel said it! I was just repeating-” He started only to be stopped by a man beside him standing with a gun in hand. As the man wearing a brown suit went for his gun, another on the other side of him whipped his gun out into view.

My eyes widen as I watched the man somehow tense up and relax all at once, realizing he was outnumbered with two gunned men. Physically, you could see the man trying to come up with some solution, but instead he was knocked out cold with a gun slamming into the back of his neck. Right when he tumbled to the ground, everyone in cart broke out into gasps and quiet mumbles with some standing to get a better look. Both of the men lowered their guns and shot a threatening glance to anyone who had the displeasure of meeting their gaze. “No heroes today, everybody shut up and put your hands over your heads, or say hello to a bullet.”

Instinctively, my eyes went to my brothers as they both began to raise their hands much like how I began to do with mine. Already feeling my body become clammy with nervous sweat, I turned back to the men, eyeing them with a scowl as they took everyone hostage.

So if the Colonel hadn’t said anything, you guys wouldn’t have been in this mess.

Exactly. While we all know that this was probably the least dangerous thing we’ve encountered we can all solidly agree that we weren’t prepared for something like this. To be fair though, there was no way for civilians like us to be fully prepared for a sudden hostage situation. But Roy knew what was going on and from what I was told he did keep in touch with the soldiers who were there.

The chaos of taking over the train had finally hit Hakuro’s booth, as a group of men threw the door open. Hakuro’s wife jumped, instantly holding her kids’ closer while the children snapped awake. With slight hesitation, the guard stood only to face a man with a large gun that took multiple shots into his shoulder after another. Hakuro and his family covered their ears and turned away as the soldier tumbled to the ground, clinging to his shoulder that had been riddled with bullets that only ended up tearing into the seat behind him. Slowly, Hakuro rose his head, firing a glare back the gunman. “Who are you!” He demanded.

Shifting his expression, another man stepped forward, one with long brown hair tied into a ponytail with a brown mustache that framed his mouth and an eye patch that covered his right eye which only seemed to amplify his undamaged green eyes. He turned his attention to Hakuro, giving him a nasty sneer. “Good morning, General Hakuro.”

-

Hughes narrowed his eyes upon hearing the noises outside the room. The gunshots, the banging, everything had pointed to this being a heist. As quickly and as quietly as he could manage, Hughes pulled the phone away from his ear and covered up the receiver, muffling Roy’s questions as to what was happening. Slowly Hughes lowered the phone down to it’s cradle before making his escape.

-

Two men slid the door open and peered inside with their guns raised only to discover that the once occupied room was empty. Lowering his gun, one of the men turned to the other. “Go tell Bald, we’ve got the switchboard. It looks intact, they had nobody manning it.”

All the while Hughes peered his head, watching them from the outside of the train.

-

A silence filled Roy’s office as Roy, Riza, Yuki, and a man named Jean Havoc kept their eyes on the telephone. Roy’s eyes tensed on the phone hie frown gaining more weight. Riza turned to Roy. “Do you think it’s them, sir?” She asked. Before another silence could grow the phone rang out, peaking everyone’s attention. Answering the phone, Roy kept himself collected as he brought the phone back to his ear.

“We got a call to Headquarters from General Hakuro. He says it’s an emergency.” A woman on the other line cooly stated.

“Patch it through” Roy muttered.

The line between Roy and the woman was cut off in that instant and was transferred to Hakuro and his overtaken train. Hakuro was hunched over when the line went through, already looking as if he was already put through hell and back. When he spoke, his voice sounded heavy, weighed down by the beginning of the ordeal. “It’s me…” He started. “Lieutenant Colonel Mustang, you there?”

Bald snatched the phone away from Hakuro and put himself on the phone with Roy. “Speaking for the Eastern Liberation Front: Blue Squad, the name is Bald. We’ve got the train and your General.” He spoke, hiding the fact that he had probably been rehearsing this several times.

“What do you want?” Roy bluntly asked.

Bald’s expression shifted into one of irritation. Gripping the phone tighter and gritting his teeth he spoke, “Don’t play stupid! We lost contact with one of our allies this morning. Someone who was supposed to deliver a manifesto to you.”

“I don’t know you mean.”

“Okay, fine.” Bald snarled like a feral dog. “I’ll give you the short version. You have our leader in Prison Eight. Bring him to Central Station, we’ll have ourselves a trade.”

Roy frowned, not moving an inch, almost as if he was pretending to think over the deal. The answer did seem clear after all as a military man. The man was terrorist after all, who would negotiate with him? Keeping his tone, he answered. “We have a deal, but I don’t want any fatalities, if one man-!” Before even finishing the thought, the line went dead sending a rhythmic beeping through the receiver. Regardless, Roy set the phone down on the rest.

“Are you sure you wanna be doing that?” Yuki question. “They have a manifesto and the General’s policy about negotiating with terrorists, he’s not gonna-”

“Easy Resonance. No one is really negotiating with anyone today. I’ve already made arrangements.” Yuki, Riza, and Havoc threw up an eyebrow and exchanged curious glances at Roy’s vague statement.

-

Things were seemingly going smoothly with the men overtaking the train. No one had tried to fight back, everyone corporated, ya know, cause we didn’t wanna get shot. For the time being everyone was being searched, making sure there weren’t any other people with weapons, didn’t work for the military, you get the gist. Then they felt the need to jump to us early.

I watched the men closely, making every mental note I could about their actions. If one of them even took a breath I would make note of it. Starting at the other end of the cart, one patted down the other passengers while the others kept his gun raised. He began to turn his attention elsewhere, but found his eyes catching Al’s armor. My eyes narrowed, watching the other man nudge his friend and bring his attention over to us as well. Both of them looked puzzled to say the very least, but quickly hid their surprise to walk towards us.

Gritting my teeth, I snapped my eyes to Ed and Al. “Brother…? Sister…?”   


“Don’t worry…” I whispered to Al as I quickly shot my eyes back to the men.

Somehow their guns became more intimidating the closer they got to us, the barrels growing deeper and darker, ready to unleash a deadly spit. The men stopped, glaring at us through the sunglasses. One of the men spoke. “Helmet, take it off.” He ordered.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ed’s expression change before pointing to the direction which they just came from. “Look!”

Just as Ed planned, the men turned around faster than it took to notice us. But the minute one of the men brought their gaze back to us, Ed shot himself forward, slamming his left knee into the man’s face. The other man growled now raising his gun to meet with Ed’s head. “Bad idea!” He yelled before Al’s fist was brought down to the man’s head, knocking him out.

I released a sigh and lowered my hands. “That was incredibly dangerous you know that?” I muttered more to myself.

“You dumb kids!” One of the passengers scolded. “What are we supposed to do now? Don’t you think they’ll notice when two of their men goes missing? And what’s gonna happen to us then? They’ll want retribution. We would have been safe if we corporated until we got to Central.”

“That’s right!”

“What were you thinking?”

I turned to Ed, ignoring my small streak of annoyance with the current passengers. “So what now? You have a plan?”

Ed rose a nervous grin and turned to me. “Didn’t plan that far…”

Suddenly one of the men came to, raising his gun towards the first person he could see. That being, the little girl from before sending both her and her mother into a moment of fright. The mother gasped and shielded her daughter in a protective manner. Without even thinking I pounded my foot into his back with as much force as I could muster right as the gun fired in a random direction. Under my foot, he laid motionless which made it all the easier for Ed to take the man’s gun and hand it over to where I was even though I wanted to not hold that gun more than him. “You two okay?” I asked in a firm voice. 

The mother and child shifted to me, both of them tearfully nodding and trembling in fright. My eyes softened at them as I knelt down to the girl’s level all while keeping my foot firm. “Now… I don’t want you to worry… Your older brothers and older sister are gonna put an end to this, alright?”

Finally locking eyes with me, the little girl stared, her eyes boring into mine. Her’s fragile while I put up this false determination. Slowly she nodded and clung closer to her mother, while I raised a sweet smile and stood.

“We better get started,” Ed responded.

“Right.”

From a couple of seats down I heard the voice of the soldier from before call to us. I lifted my head and saw the man shuffling out into view as best as he could. Ed glanced at the both of us before stepping forward and helping the man out of his knotted ropes. The man sighed and sat still. “How embarrassing… Who are you guys? Freelancers?” He asked looking over his shoulder briefly.

“Just two old-fashioned alchemists and their older sister,” Ed answered.

The man smiled and lowered his eyes. “Ya don’t say? Well, I'm Falman, State Warrant Officer.”

“Wait, so you’re a soldier?” I inquired. “You don’t look like one.”

“Well there's a reason for that. We have a special passenger on board. You know the front car kind.” Falman responded with a nervous chuckle.

Ed pressed his lips together into a line and halted his actions of untying the rope. “So that’s why these thugs are here, isn’t it?” All we got was a simplistic nod from Falman. From behind, I could see Ed’s jaw tighten, his teeth gritting together from what I could assume was agitation. “And they decided to drag us down with them.” He growled before finishing his actions and standing. “Al, Joslyn, I’m going on top to throw a surprise party. You two go with him from below.”

Al, taken aback by this, paused for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, okay…”

“Wait, what? Are you sure you can manage that?” I asked.

“I’ll be fine Jos, but I need you to stay down here and help? Can you do that?”

I sighed and frowned slightly at his tone. That tone that screamed that he wouldn’t be stepping down. “Yeah, yeah I can do that.”

And you just let him go?

You know him Win, the minute he thinks of something to do he isn’t gonna change plans no matter how who tries to talk him out of it. That’s just the way he is. But Al and I began our journey to get this train under control and…

Both Al and I moved toward the front of the train while Falman moved to the back end. At least with that, when this is over we’d be running into Ed again. When stepping out I was instantly greeted by the wind throwing my hair to and fro, blinding me with it’s uncontrollable movements. Shoving all my hair aside, I reached for the handle to the door only to be greeted by a gunman opening up. At this, Al quickly pulled me behind him without a word.

The man cried out in horror. “Wait! You shouldn’t do that.” Al assured only to be greeted with a wave of bullets.

Quickly I turned away to hide myself from any danger until hearing a scream in distress break through the air, silencing the gunshots. I peered my eyes over and caught a glimpse of the man who was now toppled over holding his heavily bleeding leg. “I tried to warn you about the ricochet… You’ll only hurt yourself…” Al mumbled.

“Fear a scared man with a gun…” I murmured to myself.

It was at this point when another man began to step out to see what the commotion was all about only to face Al the same way the last guy did. Screaming out in terror and raising his gun. “No! Wait!” Al cried before meeting more bullets and the same scene playing out. Several blasts from a gun only to be followed by screaming in a different way.

It was a lot easier than we thought.

-

Standing on top of a moving train was a challenge without a doubt, but walking on top of a train was a whole new kind of challenge. But of course with Ed, it was a challenge he was absolutely ready to go up against. Somehow, he managed to stand on his own against the harsh winds of the train speeding ahead. When he was able to get a good stance, he began to trudge forward like he was trying to move in thick mud that sunk deeper with each step. He had only taken a couple of steps before noticing a tree branch fast approaching his path. Before Ed could duck he collided with the cluster of sticks and leaves before tumbling back and to the side of the train. Ed let out a small yell as he felt the roof leave his touch until a strong grip caught him seconds before he was gone for good. “You know, there's a real art to train walking,” Hughes stated, forcing Ed’s head upwards. “I'm shocked you made it this far.”

“Thanks, I guess...”

“I’m Major Hughes, and you’re Edward Elric, right?”

“Yeah? That’s right.”

Hughes flashed Ed a small smile. “Mustang told me about you. I'm an old friend of his.”

Ed’s expression shifted in disbelief and he gasped only slightly. “The Lieutenant Colonel?”

“Yep!” He replied with a grin playing on his face as his green eyes flicked to the ladder he was hanging on. “He's always bragging about that silly promotion too. Come on Ed, we better work as a team.” Ed batted his eyes dumbfounded, taken aback by the sudden teamwork between the two despite just meeting. Regardless, found himself helping anyway.

-

In the train’s central control room was somehow the calmest cart on the whole train. It was dead silent between the four men, two as gunmen and the other two as workers. Despite the little that the workers could do with guns at their backs, the gunmen kept their eyes on them and only them. Which was perfect for whatever Hughes and Ed had in store. Slowly Ed peaked into view of the window, taking a second to look around. Then sticking his tongue out in an with a dramatic frown before slowly creeping out of sight.

The closest man to him had only caught a glimpse of this before turning his attention to the window fully. Only resulting in the other gunman to shift his attention. “What’s the matter?”

Meanwhile, Hughes crawled in through the other window, pulling out one of his throwing knives and shooting into a hand of the closest man to him. Pained, the man cried out.

“Where did you come from!” The other man screamed when the situation had finally hit him, only to be physically hit by Ed swinging in through his window and slamming his feet into the back of the man’s neck. At this sudden action, the two workers put in the final blow by punching both of the men and knocking them out.

-

One of Bald’s men stuck his head through the top entrance, checking the top of the train with a careful eye even though the whole thing would take one quick sweep before declaring it barren. Of course, Ed was climbing out into view and turned his head to see this. The man grinned now getting into position with his gun. “Well, lookie there, a sitting duck.” He chuckled darkly before pulling the trigger.

Luckily, Ed ducked his head and the bullet missed his hand by a single rung. Upon hearing the gunshots, Hughes stuck his head out into view and called out to Ed. “Hey! You okay?” Ed gritted his teeth and slipped some chalk into his hand while Hughes brought his head back into the control cart. As best as Ed could manage, he drew out a circle and activated it, thus creating a fairly sized cannon on top of his cart. 

“W-What the!” The henchman gasped as Ed crawled on top of the cart and fired away.

Without any good time to react, the man was smacked by a cannonball and was sent tumbling back into the cart where Bald stood.

Hughes whistled in amusement and smirked. “Aw man, that was smooth!”

On the other hand, one of the workers stuck his head out while clinging to his hat and demanded Ed’s attention. “Hey, you! Don't mess with that tender! It's the life of this train!”

“Sorry!” Ed exclaimed back to the man. Raising his head, Ed knotted his eyebrows together in thought, now speaking to himself. “A box of tender…?” Waiting for a moment until a devilish smile came on his face.

-

Rubbing his head from the impact of the cannon, the man sat on the ground looking at Bald with a puzzled expression. “You can’t go up there Bald! There’s something crazy up top!”

“We lost contact with the all the other carts now! Saying something about a guy in armor with a girl following him around and the line went dead! What’s going on!”

Bald growled lowly at the men around him beginning to panic, feeling himself swell with irritation. While his plan was falling apart at the seams, he was ready to do whatever to put things on track, even though he was never aware of what Al and Joslyn were up to. He gritted his teeth together and yelled loudly, “Control yourselves!”

Out of nowhere, blue sparks of alchemy erupted from the other end of the room catching the attention of everyone in the cart. What came from these sparks was a bizarre speaker with a golden antenna resting on top with a pair of eyes squinted into a glare. “Attention gun-toting extremists! You hear me alright, or did you blow your ears out playing target practice?” Ed asked through the speaker.

“What the hell… Is that...?”

“Let the hostages go! You have no reason to pull these passengers into your personal politics!”

Shooting an ever growing-glare at the speaker, Bald stepped forward. “You’re one of Mustang's secret agents, aren't you? Interfere and I will kill these hostages one by one!”

“You’re just itching to draw blood, aren't you? Alright!” Ed warned as a large open pipe tore through the wall with blue sparks. “Okay passengers! Please hold onto your seats and get ready for some turbulence!”

-

Both Al and I stood in front of the door of the VIP cart not sure what we’d be seeing inside. For the most part, things have been going fairly easily which has assured that I haven’t needed to use the gun from the first couple of men. However, if Falman stated before is correct, I’m assuming everything started up in here. It almost made me wonder if Ed’s already here, but that alone could mean anything. Slowly I let out a sigh and reached for the door’s handle. “Here goes nothing…” I replied before swinging the door open only to be greeted with a wall of water that crumbled out through the open door. As fast as I could manage, I moved aside, allowing for three drenching and heavily breathing men to crash into the barred railings.

Al pounded his fists together, creating booming echos while I began to pop my knuckles which brought the men’s attention to the two of us towering over them. “Welcome to the brig.” Al greeted with the most intimidating voice he could possibly muster.

-

Meanwhile on the inside, Bald barely managed to get on his hands and knees, heaving as he tried to recover from the flood of water that fell upon him. Beside him, the door to booth four opened with Hughes giving Bald a nasty gaze with a throwing knife in hand. “Just look on the bright side, Bald,” Hughes started. “you probably needed a shower.”

Bald quickly threw himself on his feet, turning his gaze to Hughes, bewildered and animalistic like a cornered snake. The action was enough to make Hughes throw his knife in Bald’s direction which he easily deflected with his almost cube-shaped automail arm. One which he used to fire bullets at Hughes, two of which ended up in his shoulder. Before any more damage could be done, Hughes dropped himself to the ground and closed the door in a hurry. Bald snickered as Hughes began to shake, feeling his hand go straight to his injured shoulder. “What’s the matter?” Bald mocked as he began to inch closer to the door. “Don’t like my company? Before I finish off the General I’ll take care of you!”

“Me first!” Ed’s voice demanded as he jumped into the train from the ceiling windows and held him Bald off, his left hand gripping Bald’s flesh one while his automail hand gripped Bald’s loaded but blocky one. A detail that Ed noticed in an instant through firey eyes. “Two automailers! Go figure!”

“You’re just a brat!” Bald gasped, his eyes going wide in what seemed to be horror. “Don’t tell me the army is feeding  _ kids _ into it’s chophouse now!”

“You’re gonna pay for that brat comment. And no one is feeding me into anything, I’m on my own!”

Bald grinned widely, giving Ed a crazed stare that when paired with his ear to ear smile, made him look absolutely insane. Through gritted teeth he spoke, not even once taking his eyes off of Ed. “A little piece of advice, kid. I used to be in this military too! It was fine as long as I was pissing on cue, but then I wanted this upgraded arm! They didn’t like that, thought I would be stronger than my superiors! You see the Queen Bees don’t like it when the little workers have a sting they can’t control. Shortly after the procedure, they discharged me. Since then, I’ve gotten a taste for destroying them and the nation they command! You understand, kid! You’ve got an arm just like mine! You’ve wanted to become stronger too, and the military…! They’ll just get rid of you as soon as you’re not convenient!”

“No…! I don’t understand!” Ed growled gripping the automail even tighter. “And don’t you ever lump in my reasons for this arm… With your’s!” He screamed as the blocky prosthetic shattered under Ed’s ever-tightening hold.

Taken aback, Bald staggered away from Ed only to fall into the lone hand of another. He turned back as quickly as he could, meeting Al eye to eye but with a metal fist crashing into Bald’s face, the blow was enough to knock Bald out cold. Perfect for the rest of the ride back to Central. Ed watched as Bald twitched, struggling to breathe from the blow, before turning to Al and flashing him a grin with a thumb up.

Hughes peeked from the other room and chuckled to himself. “Well, good grief. That was something different.”

-

The man behind the whole mess, Bald, and everyone else involved were contained and apprehended immediately. For the most part after that, things calmed down and the ride to Central went a little more smoothly. When we arrived Mustang and his team were already waiting to take Bald and his gang into custody, which is actually where we met Yuki.

All the men were counted down, further tied down, resting their backs against the train while the passengers were assured to be safely taken off the train and away from the criminals. One, however, was separated from the rest, while everyone groaned and moaned in pain, he remained silent, glaring at the thought of being taken down by someone like Ed, Al, and I. His whole plan foiled by the hands of three kids and a single military officer. A man that I barely recognized walked to Bald with a hand in pocket with a smirk as he was followed by two other soldiers and a small girl with short black hair, brown eyes, and an automail arm that looked smooth to the touch.

The soldier I had a memory of was Roy Mustang, the very man who informed us of this whole world that he invited Ed to. Looking as if he hadn’t even aged since then, like he was stuck looking the way he does, frozen in time. “Don’t take any lives. That’s all I asked you, Bald, and as it turns out, it seems you did just as you were told.” He remarked, his voice depth remaining the same as well.

Bald’s lone eye narrowed on Mustang with an out of place grin growing on his face. “So, I take it you’re Mustang.” He sneered. Then, out of nowhere, the man tore through the restraints with a knife and charged straight for Roy, ready to slash him endlessly.

Both a soldier with short blond hair and brown eyes reached for one of her many guns while the little girl started to dig into her pockets. On the other hand, Mustang kept a cool poker face before raising a single hand and snapping his fingers together. Red sparks engulfed Bald’s figure, sending him twitching in pain, a sight that made my eyes widen with my body tensing up in an instant. It was until a scream tore through Bald’s throat as a burst of flames exploded onto Bald but only for a minute.

At the initial blast, I raised an arm to cover my eyes from the sudden flaming glow. Slowly I rose my head as the crashing died down with eyes so wide I was scared they would pop out of my head. “Holy shit…” I breathed out.

“That flame… That’s awesome!” Ed gasped.

Smoke from the flames began to clear, revealing black patches of what I assumed to be ash covered his now bare chest and neck. The eye patch he had before was hanging by a thread and was barely functional at this point, seeming to smoke, rising like the clouds coming from his dropped open mouth. He just sat there, remaining motionless.

“I controlled myself, the damage to your skin isn’t as bad as it feels. You can call Roy Mustang or just Lieutenant Colonel, hell you can call me the Flame Alchemist.” Roy stated in a tone that was far cockier than Ed could ever make his voice. “Whatever you do, remember the pain.”

Next to me, Ed mumbled quietly to himself. “So he’s Roy Mustang…?” He paused keeping his eyes locked on Roy, thinking to himself. But shortly gritted his teeth together and marched forward despite Al’s warning tone. “Hey!” Ed called out, stopping a couple of feet away from Roy, but enough to get the attention. “You knew! That’s why you made us take this train! You put us at risk on purpose!”

Roy slyly smiled at Ed. “Come on, Ed, you think I got the whole world on strings? Anyway, you should focus on the good news here. The General heard about your exploit saving the train and agreed to make a special exception. He’s letting you take the State Alchemy Exam. You’re going to be the talk of the military kid.”

“Exception?” Ed inquired, blinking curiously. Once again he paused before realization hit him like a speeding car. “But you said we could always take it! That’s the reason we came!”

The girl behind Roy brushed a strand of her ink black hair out of her face and raised a faint smile. Almost like she knew this is how Ed would react and she knew of this whole ordeal. “They actually don’t let kids take the exam in normal cases. You’re the third kid they made an exception for.” She replied. “But, it would have been a shame for you to follow your original plan only to get a big fat no.”

When the small girl pointed this out, Ed’s face became twisted with confusion, not even sure how to react to the whole thing. All the while, I stared at Roy in absolute disbelief. How did he even know this would all work out so well? We played in his hands so well, like he was a puppet-master, laughing as we continued to fall into his plan perfectly. Roy just stepped forward but stopped so he could place a hand on Ed’s shoulder. “Whether or not you take the test, is up to you. I’m not trying to run your life.” Roy assured before continuing his path ahead. “Oh, and Yuki, watch over these three.”

“Sir.” The small black haired girl firmly responded.

Ed gritted his teeth and turned back to Roy, pointing at his back as the man walked away. “Of course I’ll take it, and pass! I would have done it anyway!”

I pressed my lips together and gave Ed a hard stare. With Al, I walked back to Ed’s side and stole a look to the Lieutenant Colonel. “I don’t like this Ed… They had us dancing right in their palms.” I murmured quietly while shaking my head. “If we do this… We won’t be in control, no matter what.”

Everything between the three of us became quiet, we let the events and the words marinate in our minds, trying to figure out the next part of our plan even though we already knew which direction we’d take. Ed was going to take the exam, Al was too. The only person who was questionable in this whole thing was me. I had no idea where I was going from this point. My thoughts were suddenly crushed as a familiar voice of a girl called for the three of us, screaming ‘over here’ while waving her hand in the air for us. Raising my head, I gave her a tender smile. “Thank you, big brothers and sister! I’ll remember you!” The three of us waved back, returning the smile as she screamed that she would always remember us.

-

Right when I finished the story, as if on cue, Yuki stepped back out after so long with a lone suitcase in hand and look of determination that I have never seen on her before. Wynter stopped and turned back over her shoulder to look at Yuki and brought her eyes up and down Yuki’s form. “Yuki…? What’s all this about?” Wynter asked quietly, but her tone said that she already knew exactly what Yuki was planning. But the question brought Winry’s attention to Yuki and her eyes went wide in confusion.

“You’re going after her, aren’t you?” I asked quietly.

“Someone has to, and I think it should be me…” She answered firmly.

Winry stared Yuki down with hard eyes, a different kind of determination flowing through those blue eyes. “Bring her back…”

“I will.”

-

Morning came in Central, things were the same. Struggling to sleep the night before resulting in feeling rushed in the morning, but it didn’t help that sleep felt like it wasn’t even a factor in this scenario. I probably didn’t get even half a wink of sleep. Regardless, I had to act like I rested peacefully after reciting my sister’s death and her failed revival for the whole city to hear. Stepping inside that cramped recording studio I sat back into my chair and set my headphones back on my head.

“Ready?” Fawn asked, shooting me a steady gaze.

I forced myself to nod and pressed the button, turning the microphone on. The fakest of smiles dug into my cheeks, sticking on, holding for dear life as I spoke. “Hello, this is Penelope Dewitt, this is day two of my story! Let’s get started.”

**Author's Note:**

> If Brotherhood is more your cup of tea, I have a story like this for Brotherhood called I am Suppressed!


End file.
